Page 84 of Owned By Two

Everything had been organized ahead of time and there was nothing for her to do, which now that I came to think about it, wasn’t the best thing for her.

I ought to have left something unfinished for her to focus on so she could distract herself.

The verylastthing she needed right then was what I was about to tell her.

That I was leaving and wouldn’t be coming back.

I had doubts about confronting her but I had already made my decision and to change it now would only result in greater pain later.

I glanced over at Blor, who sipped from a cup of coffee, watching me closely.

He knew what my plan was and knew I would have to tell Lizzy I was leaving.

I took a deep breath and approached her.

She smiled distractedly as I leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “I need to speak with you.”

She nodded her head, pleased she would finally have something to do.

A rock formed in the pit of my stomach as I led her toward a small anteroom where visitors would often wait to be seen.

Tasteful chairs lined one wall and a bank of digital magazines from all four corners of the galaxy flickered with moving images.

This wasn’t exactly the place or the time I wanted to tell her this… but I had run out of time.

I turned to her.

She looked up at me with hopeful expectation. “What is it?” she asked in her sweet soft voice.

Looking at her now, I almost lost my nerve.

The words I had rehearsed a thousand times that morning suddenly seemed to turn to ice on my tongue.

I cleared my throat and tugged at my sleeves as if I kept a secret store of courage up them.

I spoke slowly and clearly.

I had to be direct — Lizzyneededme to be direct.

It was the only way to pierce the shield of sadness she wore like a veil.

“I’m… sorry it has to be this way.”But I can’t live my life seeing you with another male,I wanted to add, but the words wouldn’t come.

They would only have caused an avalanche of discussion between us, and the result would ultimately have been the same.

Ihadto go.

She didn’t need to know what I’d expected our relationship to become… and better for me to not think about it either or my bravery would have melted like ice before the midday sun.

I couldn’t bear to see the hurt, lost look on her face any longer, and turned to leave.

I left the room, left the wing, left the mansion, and marched back and forth, angry at myself, muttering about how I wished I had never had to say those things, wished I had never gotten so close to her in the first place, had never even seen her photo all those years ago, had never fallen in love with her…

But the anger was short-lived.

I regrettednoneof it.

No matter how much it hurt right now, no matter how much it stung, I wouldforevertreasure the memories of those few hours we spent together.

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