Page 38 of Parrish

“I’m leaving, Reina,” he declares, keeping his back to me.

The reaper stares at me, taunting me in the most heartbreaking way, reminding me I’ve always had to share my husband with him. That he’s never truly just been mine. If it wasn’t the club, it was his mind. His demons and the devil—they all have a stake in the man I married.

“Okay, well I’m dressed. We can drop Danny off and then head to the office,” I say. As the words leave my lips, Jack turns around and by the look reflected in his eyes I know he’s changed the script.

“This is it, Reina,” he says softly.

Swallowing, I ball my hands into fists and shake my head.

“No, we decided we would drive Danny to school and then we’d go to the district attorney’s office together. I would stay with you while you sign—”

“Not happening,” he interjects.

“Says who?”

“Me,” he replies, touching his fist to his chest. “I don’t want to kiss you goodbye in a room full of fucking people. I don’t want to see you fall to pieces in front of me and I sure as fuck don’t want your last memory of me to be of me getting cuffed.”

Tears cloud my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. Instead, I channel the anger and step forward, stabbing the concave center of his chest with my finger.

This man.

This selfish misfit of a man.

“All I heard was a whole lot of I in that sermon and not one fucking mention of we. When did you become so fucking selfish? What happened to us being a team? What happened to death do we part?”

“I’ve always been selfish, Reina. I never understood how you loved me despite it. Did you ignore it all this time or were you oblivious?”

His words sting and defensively, I flatten both palms against his chest and attempt to push him back. Of course he remains perfectly still which only angers me more. Taking a step back, I glare at him.

“Don’t do this.”

My words a plea.

“Do what?” he snaps.

This man.

So broken.

So unbelievably broken.

All these years I’ve been hanging onto the notion I could heal him with love. That, somehow, I could silence the chaos in his head. That in his destructive world, I was more than a distraction. I was everything he needed to feel safe. Everything he needed to be free. It was a lie I told myself time and time again.

But I’m not the one lying now.

“I take it back,” I say, pausing for a moment. “You’re not selfish. You like to pretend that you are. You portray yourself as this vicious man who is only out for himself, but you’re anything but.”

Tearing his eyes away from me, he combs his fingers through his hair and clenches his jaw.

“You see what you want Reina,” he shouts. “You put your rose-colored glasses on and pray you don’t see all the heinous shit I’ve done—”

“You’re scared!”

“Fuck that!”

“I know what you’re trying to do Jack,” I whisper. “I see through you. I always have. You can fight with me all you want, but you’ll never make me hate you. You will never make me love you less.”

The tears finally fall, and Jack meets my gaze. His features soften as he draws in a wrangled breath and closes the distance between us.

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