Page 114 of Heartless Game

He opened the shower door and stepped inside. He was fully dressed and the freezing shower water immediately soaked through his jeans and shirt.

“Isaac—”

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest and laying his head against my wet hair.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry Tovah. You have no idea how much.”

“You hurt me,” I told him. “You hurt me so much. How could you hurt me like that? How could you doubt me like that? How could you say you love me, and hurt me like that?”

There was a raw vulnerability in my voice, an honesty I hated. But I was too worn out to hide it, and I deserved better.

“I know,” he said. “Fuck, you’re freezing. I hate when you’re cold. I never want you to be cold.”

He pulled me out of the shower, still ignoring how wet his own clothes were, or that he was also shivering. He grabbed a towel like he was going to wrap me in it, like he always did, but I stopped him, pulling away.

“You can’t,” I told him. “You can’t do this to me. An apology isn’t enough.”

He nodded. “It’s not enough. Nothing is enough to fix my cruelty. But god knows I’m going to try. Please, Tovah, let me warm you up. I can’t think clearly when you’re shivering like that. My brain wants to break at the sight of you hurt.”

“Even when you were the cause?”

His eyes were as raw as my body felt. “Especially if I was the cause. Once, bashert, I told myself that no one was allowed to hurt you but me. But now, no one is allowed to hurt you,including me.Please, let me make you warm again.”

His words alone helped eradicate the cold, but I wasn’t about to tell him that much. Instead, I stood and let him dry me off, the towel less like sandpaper than I’d expected.

“You’re still cold,” he muttered, picking me up and carrying me into the bedroom, where he proceeded to layer me in sweatpants and sweaters before grabbing the duvet off the bed and wrapping it around me. There wasn’t much funny about this moment, but I cracked a smile when I saw myself in the mirror.

“I look like a burrito.”

“The prettiest burrito I’ve ever seen,” he said solemnly.

And then he knelt in front of me, wrapping his arms around my hips.

“I’m so sorry. I’ll give you everything you want. Everything you need. The evidence that the team was distributing Vice and Vixen. You can take us all down, I don’t care. The evidence that my father was involved. There’s a bottom drawer in the office, the code is 0914.” He looked up at me. “September 14. It’s the day we met.”

I swallowed.

“In that drawer, you’ll find everything you need to destroy the Silver family and get freedom for you and your mom. Dates, deals, money exchanged. Texts and emails. Liza and I have been keeping all of it as insurance against my father, in case we need it. But it’s yours. All of it is yours. I don’t care if they drag my entire family away in handcuffs, if you have the life you want.”

I stared down at him, stroking my hand through his wet and curling hair.

“You mean it,” I said. “You’d really do all of that to give me my freedom.”

He chuckled. “I mean, freedom with caveats. Even if I spend my life in prison, you’re still marrying me.”

I raised an eyebrow, but my heart was about to burst in my chest. “Am I now?”

“Yup. That’s non-negotiable, Tovah Silver.”

For years, I’d had to live with a name that wasn’t mine. It had always felt like a too-tight sweater. But hearing my namethis way…it felt like it fit. It felt right.

It felt like coming home.

“Stand up,” I said, voice hoarse.

He shook his head against my blanketed stomach. “No. Not until you know that I’m not leaving you. That I’d never leave you. I mean it, Tovah. Please. Trust me. Even at my angriest, my stupidest, I’d still keep us cuffed together every night.”

I sighed. “I believe you,” I said. “But I don’t forgive you.”

---