Page 130 of The Moment You Know

In the ensuing silence, David leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, feeling utterly spent. The bottle of wine that he’d mostly drunk by himself had more than caught up with him. “Thank you for sharing it with me like this,” he told Paige softly.

“You’re welcome.” Then, with concern in her voice, she asked, “How are you doing?”

“Well,” he replied, looking down at his hands, “I feel a little rough right now. Some of that was really hard to listen to, but … it explains a lot. And it changes things. Changes how I look back and see our marriage.”

“I know. It was the same for me.”

“I wasn’t your first.” The words came out with soul-deep sadness. It had always been something that mattered to him, something he had treasured, and now it wasn’t his anymore. “Carter took that away from me. From us.”

She moved so that she was semi-hugging him from the side, her hands circling around to meet across his chest and pressed her cheek to his shoulder. “No, David. In every way that counts, you were my first. Our first time is what I remember—it’s the only first time I know. And I chose you. I dated a few guys before you and I met, and I never slept with any of them because I never wanted to. I thought I was giving you my virginity, but even if I technically didn’t, I gave you my first consensual time and that matters. So much. I never gave Carter anything. Whatever he got from me, he took by force. You were my first ‘everything’ that mattered.”

David’s eyes were burning again and he pressed the heels of his hands to them. “He gave you away at our wedding,” he whispered, his throat tight. He didn’t know if it was the wine or the emotional overload of the evening, but he was starting to really break down.

Paige nodded and he could feel the movement on his shoulder. “I think about that a lot. I remembered right before he walked me down the aisle, he whispered that it was fitting for him to be the one giving me away, because I’d always ‘belonged’ to him. But he was wrong,” she said, her voice full of steel. “I never belonged to that son of a bitch.”

Chapter 49

Shortly after arriving at work, Paige glanced down to see she had a text from David.

DAVID: Thanks again for letting me crash in your guest room.

PAIGE: You’re welcome. How are you feeling?

DAVID: I’m really hung over, actually. Wine does it to me every time, especially when I almost empty a bottle on my own.

DAVID: And I have a newborn baby photo shoot in an hour. Just kill me now.

PAIGE: Oh, my God, that’s funny.

PAIGE: But I really meant how are you feeling after our talk?

DAVID: I’m fine, for the most part. How are you feeling?

PAIGE: I’m fine.

DAVID: So … when do I get to hear the good stuff?

PAIGE: The good stuff?

DAVID: Your recovery. That’s the good stuff.

PAIGE: You want to hear about that?

DAVID: It’s part of your story, isn’t it?

PAIGE: That’s actually the weird part of my story.

DAVID: Then I definitely want to hear it.

PAIGE: It might get a little awkward.

DAVID: Now I need to hear it as soon as possible. Check your schedule and get back to me.

PAIGE: All right.

DAVID: Also, was the offer to raid your storage unit legit?

PAIGE: Yes, it was legit.

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