Page 80 of Always Been You
“Is this why you’ve been calling me ‘wife’?” I demand, waving the certificate.
He doesn’t react. Doesn’t flinch. His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t look away. Doesn’t flinch.
I breathe in, then out, trying to steady myself, but before I know it, my vision blurs.
Tears. Fucking tears.
I swipe at my face angrily, hating that I’m crying. I hate that he has done this to me.
“You looked me in the face,” I whisper, voice trembling, “and lied to me. When I asked you not to. When I begged you not to.”
Eddie exhales, his expression unreadable. “I—”
“What was the purpose of the proposal?” I cut him off. “Was it just for show? A fucking joke? Is marriage a joke to you?”
His face hardens instantly. “No, Empress. No, my love.”
“I said don’t fucking call me that!” I snap, voice breaking.
Silence stretches between us.
Eddie clenches his fists at his sides, then unclenches them, his control razor-thin. “I never lied to you.”
I scoff, shaking my head. “You never lied to me?” I repeat, voice dripping with disbelief. “You knew we were married and still got down on one knee and asked me to marry you?” My voice rises with every word. “You don’t think that’s lying? That’s manipulating, Edmund!”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?” I throw my arms out. “On our first anniversary? When we had kids? On your deathbed?”
His face darkens at the mention of kids, his jaw twitching. I should be telling him I’m pregnant and that we’re having a baby and I’m scared but the pain
I let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, now you have something to say?”
“I’m sorry,” Eddie whispers.
The great Edmund Montgomery apologizing. I would have laughed; it was a different setting or situation. I should feel victorious. Like I finally have the upper hand. But all I feel is this unbearable ache in my chest.
He steps closer. Too close. His warmth reaches me before his hands do, and my breath hitches despite myself. Even now, even after this, I still crave him.
Pathetic.
I let the tears fall. I don’t wipe them. I want him to see what he’s done to me. I need him to see it.
“I don’t like seeing you cry,” he says, voice thick with something dangerously close to panic. “It kills me that I’m the reason for this.” His thumb brushes under my eye, catching a tear before it falls. “Tell me what to do, Empress. Anything. I’ll fix it.”
I laugh. A hollow, bitter sound.
“Anything?” I repeat, my voice cracking. “Except divorce, right?”
His grip on me tightens.
“Except divorce,” he confirms, low and rough. “Because I will not lose you.” His thumb moves to my jaw, tilting my face up. “You’re my sunshine, my moonlight, the light at the end of my tunnel.” His voice drops to a whisper. “Please, Lynx.”
Something in me shatters.
I don’t know if it’s the way he says my name or the way his hands tremble slightly even as they hold me firm. Maybe it’s the way his blue eyes, which are always so sharp and calculating in boardrooms, are now wide, desperate and pleading.
But none of it changes the fact that he lied to me. That he stole a moment I can never get back. That he made a choice for me when it should have been mine to make.
