Page 62 of The Lake House

I make it to the banister of the stairs leading to the backyard and grab on as if holding onto it helps keep Todd away from having the advantage on me.

He turns and walks toward me. “I think I need to stay and make things right, Giulies.”

Dammit, how the hell had he gotten inside? Hadn’t I locked the front door and the back gate? I need to change all the locks on the doors.

He walks up to the banister and is standing right in front of me once more. Thankfully, he’s not pinning me against it this time. If he would have gotten any closer, I would have moved. I need to stand my ground, though, and let him know I want him gone once and for all.

“Don’t you miss this, baby?” he asks, running his hand up my thigh. “Don’t you miss us?”

I place a hand over his, willing him to stop. He does, thank God. But if he had been drunk like he normally would have, I don’t think I’d be able to stop him.

“Back up, Todd,” I answer.

He pulls his hand away from me. “I can’t back away from you. I’m drawn to you.”

I grimace. “I don’t get it. You were the one who wanted to end things back then. You were the one to cheat and wander off with different women all the time. Now you want to be with me again? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Todd shrugs, eyeing me up and down. “I realized I made a mistake.”

I shake my head. “You’re too late. This has been over for a long time.”

His expression turns serious and something in his eyes makes an icy chill run down my spine. “You’ll always be mine, Giulies.”

He inches closer than he already is, and as he raises a hand as if he’s about to grab my neck, my superhero comes to the rescue.

“Giuliana?” a voice I’m so thankful for echoes in the evening.

Todd spins around, allowing me to pull away from him once and for all.

“Liv!” I announce, running toward her at full speed.

She gently pulls me to the side, making him unable to get to me. “What the hell is going on here?” she asks, eyeing Todd up and down.

Todd smiles his typical vicious smile, mouthing something under his breath. He’s probably cursing her out, knowing him. Finally, he says, “Nothing. I was just leaving.”

Relief washes over me as I watch him make his way down the steps and toward the gate. As he passes Liv and me, he sends me a glare before turning around and opening the gate. “This isn’t over, Giulies. It never will be.”

He makes his way out and after a few moments, I see him get into a car and speed away. Guess it’s a new one because that wasn’t the same car he had when we split up.

I take a deep breath.

“Hey, are you okay, Giules?”

I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Come on, let’s get inside,” she gestures toward the door.

I follow her in, thankful as all hell this is over.

Thank God for Liv. I can’t imagine what could’ve happened had she not shown up when she did.

* * *

“What the hell did thatassholiowant? Why was he here?” Liv asks over a plate of spaghetti.Assholio,being a term she still loves using to express her undying affection forperfectguys.

I shrug. “I don’t know what his problem is. First, he’s quick to end things with me, like he can’t get out of our marriage fast enough. And then he’s trying to get back with me after all this time out of the blue. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

I mean, would that make sense to any typical person? I can’t imagine it would. The back and forth after this long just doesn’t seem rational to me. But what do I know, anyway? I was thinking our marriage was fine and rock solid while he was sleeping around behind my back, left and right. How the hell could I not have known? How the hell did I not figure it out…

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