Page 57 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

Don’t be hurt.

“I didn’t ask you to love me back, Jax.” She spoke over her shoulder as she stood. “And you know why.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Having the capacityto love someone did not make her a fool. Loving her husband did not make her a fool. Wanting to be loved back did not make her a fool.

Bree felt like one anyway.

And she was so tired of it! Maybe Jax hadn’t promised to love her, but she was still disappointed that he didn’t. It was even more disappointing to contemplate years of being stuck—again—in this state of yearning and wishing and feeling unworthy.

She couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t. This was exactly the anguish she’d been trying to spare herself when she had decided to be a single mother in the first place.

They barely spoke as they boarded the jet and slept in the stateroom most of the flight.

Actually, she tossed and turned. Jax was only beside her for a few hours, barely sleeping at all.

By the time she rose, Bree had a dull headache and gritty eyes. She accepted a coffee, then remembered she was trying to get pregnant and should avoid caffeine.

Was she, though? She had left her prescription in the bin at the villa, but maybe that had been mistake. Maybe this marriage had been a huge mistake.

Jax didn’t look half as wilted as she felt. He had shaved and put on fresh clothes. When she joined him, he lifted his grave gaze from his phone.

Her declaration of love—and his inability to say it back—sat between them like compressed air.

“I’ve…” She cleared her throat. “I’ve decided to stay with Mom while you carry on to New York.”

His blink was a tiny flinch, one he covered so quickly she might have imagined it.

“For the weekend?”

“I don’t know, but I need time with her.”

With someone who loves me.

She lifted her chin. “I need to decide whether I want to be in a marriage where I’m more emotionally invested than you are.”

Something flared in his gaze, but he didn’t say anything, only studied her, unmoving except for the tick in his cheek.

A knot formed in her chest, tightening and tightening.

Fight for me, she willed him.Prove that I’m important to you.

“If that’s what you want.” He dropped his gaze to the phone he held.

His words slid into her like a cold knife. A lump formed in her throat and she looked to the window, eyes hot.

The flight attendant asked them to prepare for landing.

Her mother was on the tarmac when they landed. She climbed from the car with Sofia, who hugged them with all her might, bringing tears of happy reunion into Bree’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,piccolina,” Jax said as he held her. “I have to see Zio Nico in New York.”

“You can talk to Papà on my phone, though,” Bree assured her as Sofia pouted.

“I’ll call tonight,” Jax promised.

“Let’s get out of the wind,” Bree said. It was a beautiful day, if considerably cooler than the tropics, but that wasn’t the reason she felt chilled to the bone and hurried to the car. She was hurt and angry and, for once, she needed to be the one who walked away.

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