Page 56 of Keeping Kaitlyn

Something is wrong.

I know there is—but I’m too afraid to ask what it is.

We’ve been laying here for a while, neither of us talking, both of us lost in our own thoughts. Mine keep circling back to our wedding day. The vows we made.

Respect.

Honor.

Support.

Love was never mentioned.

At the time it didn’t bother me. To tell the truth, I didn’t even realize it until later and when I did, I told myself it doesn’t matter. That it didn’t bother me. That the vows Wentdidmake to me were just as important, if not more so.

But with each passing week, I worry a little more and that worry gets louder and louder.

That while Went might care for me and he absolutely likes to fuck me, he doesn’t love me. Not the way you’re supposed to love someone you’ve vowed to spend the rest of your life with.

Let him go, Kait. Tell him now that you’ve faced your father and told him you’re not going back, he doesn’t have to staymarried to you. That he can go back to his life. That you’ll be fine without him, even if it’s a lie because he’s done too much for you as it is and letting himkeepdoing it is selfish.

Knowing it’s the right thing to do, I open my mouth to say it but before I can get the words out, Went speaks first.

“I’m leaving.”

When I hear him say it, everything I’ve been thinking flies out the window. My plans to let him go dissolve under the weight of my own panic because there’s no need to be selfless. No need to set him free with a smile and aI’ll be fine.

Because Went is leaving.

He’s leavingme.

He’s made his choice without me.

Nodding my head against his shoulder, I feel my throat start to tighten and my sinuses start to sting. Pushing away from him, I sit up in bed. Drawing my knees up to my chest, I wrap my arms around them in an effort to keep myself together. “Okay… well, you don’t have to be the one to leave.” Forcing myself to look at him over my shoulder, the sight of him, lying there, watching me with his heavy, black gaze, nearly guts me. “It’s your hotel, Went. I can go. I can just?—”

Before I can finish, Went sits up. Pushing himself back until his broad, beautifully tattooed shoulders are pressed against the headboard. “Where would you go?” he asks, his dark eyes narrowing slightly. “If you left, where would you go.”

He expects me to sayhome. Back to Barrett. Back to the lifetime of punishment my father has planned for me.

“I don’t know.” I give him a shrug before looking away from him because the look on his face when I say it calls me a liar. “I?—”

Before I can finish, I feel the mattress under me shift, seconds before large, rough hands close around my waist, liftingand turning me before I find myself face-to-face with him and I’m straddling his hips.

“My attorney was able to prove I wasn’t the one driving her car the night of Lexi’s accident,” He tells me, hands still gripped around me, holding me in place like he thinks I might try to run. “I have to go back to California and turn myself in for questioning and after that, I’ve got to start damage control.”

Head spinning, I give it a slow, puzzled shake. “Damage control?”

His mouth flattens for a moment before he sighs. “The hotel’s stock is pretty close to tanking over this mess and the majority shareholders are calling for my resignation as CEO.”

When he says it, I feel my brow pucker in a frown. “That skanky little bitchliedand they want to fire you because?—”

Leaning into me with a relieved laugh, Went lifts his hands off my hips and uses them to frame my face. “It’s not gonna happen, Sunshine—I’mthemajority shareholder. I own fifty-one percent of Hawthorne International. They can’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do.” Pulling me closer, he meets me halfway to brush his lips against mine in a soft kiss. “Everything is okay—but I have to go and be a Hawthorne for a little while to make sure it stays that way.”

Still frowning, I shake my head. “How long isa little while?”

“I’m not sure.” Went frowns along with me. “A few weeks. Maybe more.”

A few weeks. Maybe more.

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