Page 89 of The Enforcer

Damn you, Decker.

Part of him had always known this domestic bliss was too good to be true. A man like him didn’t get to have it all. The sins of his past had come back to snatch away the glory of his present.

There was only one thing left for him to do.

CHAPTER 30

MARY

Mary grabbed the leather cushion of the bar stool—she needed something to hold on to—and shook her head at the love of her life.

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said ’no.’ I decline your proposal.”

“It wasn’t a proposal. I said I want to get separated.”

The words almost shattered her. Again. How could he speak those words so casually while every syllable tore her apart? Something fishy was going on here. There was no way that the man who had made such passionate love to her just last night would change like this overnight.

“Tell me the real reason why you’re doing this.”

Please let there be a reason.

Please don’t say you got fed up with me. That you want your freedom back. That you regret our marriage.

Hector let out a frustrated sigh. “Truth is, I’m done playing house. It was good while it lasted but now I’m... bored. It’s suffocating. This isn’t the life I want. I like my freedom. You got the kid, so I held up my end of the deal. It’s time to part our ways.”

Heart. Officially. Shattered.

“I… I don’t know what to say. Or where we go from here.”

Never in a million years had she expected this to happen. She could’ve sworn that he cared about her. She had been ready to tell him she loved him. She was going to be brave, take the plunge, and just tell him. Now everything was tainted. He wouldn’t believe her, even if she did tell him. He would think of it as a ploy to get him to stay. Just as he would if she were to tell him about their baby.

Her hand instinctively went to her abdomen.

Oh, God, she was going to be a single mom. She was going to be a pregnant, twenty-one-year-old divorcee with a six-year-old.

She forced herself to stay upright. Her heart might be a mangled, bloody mess, but she would keep her spine straight. She had to stay strong. Hector might not feel that way, butshehad a family to protect. At least she still had a house.

“So, now what?” she asked. “Are you just going to leave? Or do we get separate bedrooms or—”

“You can’t stay here.”

She sucked in a breath. This was actually happening. He was kicking her out of her own home.

“I guess I should start packing then,” she croaked. Zoe would be in school for a few more hours. This gave her at least some time.

“I’ll have your stuff delivered wherever you want,” Hector said. “I’m sure Jazzy will have you before you find a new place. I… I called the realtor. You can pick any place you like. Anything you want, Mary, just ask and it’s yours.”

Anything she liked? Was he kidding? He thought he could buy her off with an expensive house?

She stepped back from the kitchen table and the block of knives, afraid of what she might do. She would either stab him or beg him not to cast her out. This was her own fault; she had practically forced him to marry her. Had she really expected it to last?

Actually, yes, she had.

“You said that once I was yours, there was no going back.”

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