Page 45 of The Hotel Room

He’d been lying to himself—grasping for excuses—because facing the truth was unbearable.

From the living room, Lily’s laughter rang out again—bright, innocent, whole.

I thought I could make excuses for this. That I could explain it away as a mistake—a moment of weakness. But now I see the truth.

I’ve hurt the people I love the most. I’ve made Kate feel small, feel replaceable. I’ve shaken her sense of security in ways that words can’t repair. I’ve let my children down, even if they won’t ever know.

I can’t undo what I’ve done. But I can see it clearly now for what it is: the worst decision of my life.

James stared down at the journal, his pulse hammering loud and hollow in his chest. Slowly, he turned the page, the blank space stretching before him like a challenge.

His hand trembled as he picked up the pen again, this time pressing it to the paper with purpose—writing not excuses, not guilt, but a list.

A list of how he could make this right.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

James

James sat at the desk in his home office, the papers spread neatly in front of him. The house deed, the transfer form, the notary signature line. He’d read through it three times already, his lawyer’s instructions clear in the email.

It was straightforward. A clean transfer of ownership.

The house would be Kate’s.

Entirely.

His name removed.

His thumb hovered over the pen, heart pounding too hard for something so simple.

But it wasn’t simple, was it?

Because this house wasn’t just a building. It wasn’t just wood and brick and property taxes.

It wasthem.

The life they’d built here.

The walls where they’d marked Noah and Lily’s heights with pencil lines in the laundry room. The creaky step on the staircase he kept meaning to fix but never did. The kitchen where Kate had cooked their family dinners, where he’d kissed her neck while she stirred pasta on nights when things still feltright.

And now—he was letting it go.

Lettinghergo.

No, that wasn’t it.

This wasn’t about giving up.

This was about doingsomething—anything—to prove that he wasn’t just full of empty words.

That he saw her.

Respectedher.

That he wasn’t holding their history over her head like a debt she could never repay.

James exhaled slowly, pressing the pen to the paper.

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