Page 72 of L.O.V.E

“Why did you come?” Why did she ever let me go?

“I don’t know. It felt like it was the right thing to do.”

“Fuck the right thing.” I moved closer, craving her pain. “Look what doing the right thing has cost me.”

“Cole, I’m sorry.”

The sincerity in her voice broke me all over again. Sorry didn’t mean shit. Sorry wouldn’t right any of the wrongs. I’d chosen the devil. I’d suffer the consequences. “Sorry? Sorry for what? Sorry she’d been fucking my best friend? Sorry they’d stolen from me? Sorry Martin had gambled his way into a debt he’d never get out of, and used my wife, my fucking money, to run? I’ll never—” Anger clogged my throat. “I’ll never know if that baby was even mine. She lied so I would marry her. So she would have access to everything I owned. What the fuck? Who does that shit?”

“Victoria.” Natalie found her voice, her spine straightening. “Victoria does that shit.”

“You knew, didn’t you? You knew all this time that she’d ruin me.”

“I hoped she wouldn’t.”

“You knew her soul was poisoned, and you stood by and watched. Waited.”

“Cole, no. That’s not what—”

“Shut up. Just shut the fuck up.”

Cheeks crimson, her eyes liquified. I hated her in that moment. Hated that I wanted her, wanted her tears, wanted her sympathy. Hated that I needed to break her so I could feel better.

“I’m such a fucking fool.”

With a trembling hand, Natalie reached behind and gripped the door handle, seeking escape.

I couldn’t let her off that easy.

“Victoria wouldn’t fuck me. Even on our wedding day, she wouldn’t fuck me. At first I thought she knew I’d been with you and was punishing me.”

Natalie stood speechless, half turned away from me.

“You know what’s most fucked up about this whole scenario? She started fucking Martin only after you came into our lives. I found her journal. She kept a goddam record of her infidelity.” I moved closer, towering over her trembling form, hating myself but unable to stop the purge. “You had Martin. She wanted him to spite you. So really, this is your fucking fault, isn’t it?”

“Cole, stop,” came from her trembling lips.

“I was perfectly, cluelessly happy. Until you.”

“That’s enough.”

“No. Not enough. It’ll never be enough. I don’t have my wife. I don’t have a child.” I sucked in a jagged breath, whispered in her ear, “I don’t have you.”

Natalie broke, choking on a sob. She shoved me away, curled into her SUV, and locked herself up tight.

Hands pressed to the window, I watched her cry and fed off her pain.

When she drove away, I stared at the empty space, the black asphalt dark and dirty as the tar in my heart. I hated Martin. Hated Victoria. But most of all, I hated myself.

Cole

I got the call at 1:36 AM. The baby was on his way two weeks early.

I arrived in time to catch Ellis when he turned green and made like a falling tree.

Lacey was a champ. They shooed me out of the birthing suite when it came time to push.

Three hours later, I met Leon Matias Chambers.

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