Page 129 of Hell Hath No Fury
CHAPTER FOUR
Mason
Charlotte’s mouth drops open.
Fuck. Guilt drops onto me like falling concrete.
“I didn’t mean to say that.” I take both her hands in mine. “Forget it. Please.”
Truly. I didn’t mean to say it. Didn’t want to. Not to her. But she kept pushing and pushing and pushing. I already feel stretched to the limit by this situation with Gabriel. When Charlotte insisted, I crumbled. Because I’m helpless. I’m a helpless man when it comes to my wife. I’m no match for the onslaught of her gorgeous, pregnant body and her sapphire blue eyes and her gentle love.
“Mason.” She curls her fingers through mine, holding on tight. “We have a long, long time before we have to worry about that.”
My throat closes. “My parents died when they weren’t expecting it. When their children were young. They weren’t expecting it either. Death comes when you least expect it.”
She blinks, looking like she wants to argue. It’s hard to explain. She had her own troubles. She had her own shitty parent situation, but she doesn’t understand the shock of losing them.
“We struggled without them, Charlotte. It’s hard to explain how much. I mean…not me. I didn’t need—” I’m about to say I didn’t need their money, or their guidance. It’s all bullshit. I didneed those things. Desperately. “Remy was only six. I’m not sure she remembers much of them at all.”
Charlotte rubs the pads of her thumbs over the base of mine, listening.
She’s waiting for me to continue, and she’ll keep waiting. Charlotte is both patient and kind. I love her so goddamn much for it. And sometimes I wish she was a little less patient. It hurts to say these things.
“They assumed we would inherit their money, but the truth is that they didn’t plan to die. At least not that early. They weren’t ready. That could happen to me, and I need to be ready.”
They had no idea they’d die that night. It blindsided my parents to be trapped in a building that was burning down, just like it would blindside anyone. My father saved my life that night. He couldn’t save me and my siblings from what came after.
He wasn’t the kind of person who assumed the worst about other people. He didn’t make plans based on the idea that his friends would turn against him, but they did.
We all suffered for it. For many, many years.
Tears fill Charlotte’s eyes. She’s embarrassed about how much she cries now that she’s pregnant, but I don’t mind at all. Most times, I envy her. She doesn’t try to bottle up her emotions the way I do. She trusts me to be there for her no matter what she’s feeling.
Just like she’s here for me.
I don’t envy her today. I don’t want her to feel this way because I’m being pragmatic about the future.
“So that’s what you’re doing?” Her voice wobbles. “Planning to die?”
“Absolutely. This way, you’ll never end up penniless and helpless and struggling to exist.”
Charlotte’s tears spill over. I let go of her hands and swipe them from her cheeks. I love her to the ends of the earth, and I still feel the faintest irritation. A resistance to the idea that she’s crying for me. I want to support her through everything she feels, but I don’t want her to cry for me. “Charlotte, please. I don’t want your pity.”
It comes out gruff, almost stern, and I hate the way it sounds.
“It’snotpity.” She sniffles hard, looking away.
I drop my face into my hands.
“Mason, look at me.”
I meet my wife’s eyes. She’s got her chin up now. Charlotte dabs stoically at her tears, ignoring them even as they continue to fall. My heart is being crushed under every one of those tears. All those breakthroughs in physical therapy, and my kneethrobs.It hates this conversation.
I do, too.
“You’re not going to die.” I open my mouth to argue, but Charlotte is faster. “But if you did, I would take care of the baby.”
I turn away from her. Grief is a stone the size of my heart, taking up all the room in my chest. It blinds me. It suffocates me. I can’t speak. I can’tthink.
