Page 26 of Push

“You cheated, Toby! You were with her, and the entire world knows. She’s posting about what you did—”

“She’s lying, Gwen!”

“Her lipstick was on you in places it never should be! Over and over, I gave you the benefit of the doubt and convinced myself I was the problem. That I was reading too much into everything and projecting my own fears on you. But I can’t ignore the evidence when it’s staring me in the face. Iwon’t.”

Toby’s gaze refused to budge from the carpet. He nodded. A sniffle and a gulped breath later, he scrubbed a hand over his nose. A part of me wanted to fold, but the stronger part of me stood taller.

“We’ll work something out for Noah,” I added, strangely calm. “I’ll never stop you from being part of his life—”

“No! Please don’t ask me to leave, Gwen.Please.”

“I need space.”

“Gwen…no!” His desperate pleas followed me as I elbowed past him. “Please! I’ll sleep on the couch. I’ll sleep on the floor in the fucking garage. Do your worst, butpleasedon’t ask me to leave! I can’t live without you. I’ve woken up next to you every single morning since we moved in together.”

My hand curled around the doorknob. “Except this morning.” I turned, my voice calm, but inside, my heart quietly tore down the middle. “I’ll show you more compassion than you showed me. Have the rest of the afternoon with Noah. You know I’ll do everything to make sure you’re still a part of his life. But at six o’clock, you leave this house, and you don’t come back.”

Toby had no more chances to promise me the world. I slipped through the bedroom door and disappeared down the stairs, the bittersweet ending to foolish teenage dreams.

My marriage was over.

Part 2

We Stumble in the Ruins

10

He Set a Boundary

Toby

When I was sixteen,I fell head over heels for the new girl at school.

My mates called her the Ice Princess. Lots of girls smiled at me. She didn’t. She never smiled at anyone. Everyone thought I was dumber than a bag of rocks for sneaking looks at the nerd with her nose stuck in a book, but they were the stupid ones.

Gwen wasfascinating.

She had straight blonde hair with a blunt fringe and blinky blue eyes set deep in a serious face. My grandma had a row of old-fashioned dolls collecting dust in her china hutch that looked exactly like solemn Gwen. But sometimes, if I was patient, I glimpsed another side of her. No one else noticed the way she’d smirk when she read something funny or how her round cheeks flushed hot pink when I grabbed the book she wanted from the top shelf in the library.

Man, that day…Thathad been the best day in all my sixteen years. My heart had thumped out of my chest likebam, bam, bam!

Yeah, the second my eyes locked on Gwen, I was a goner.

I’d slipped an engagement ring on her finger the day she turned nineteen. I’d married her the spring after we turned twenty-two. My parents had bellowed blue murder at me and threatened to disinherit me if I went through with our wedding, but I hadn’t cared. Gwen was the best thing to happen to an idiot like me. She was mine. Until she wasn’t. Until I screwed everything up.

Memories of Gwen still crowded my mind when I pulled into the parking lot at the clinic. My hand froze on the seatbelt before I unclipped it, my gaze stuck on the rearview mirror. Reminders. The empty baby seat in the back. The pile of albums filled with pictures of me and Gwen I’d saved from the trash. A lump lodged in my throat. I wasn’t ready to drag myself out of the car and face the world yet.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled out my phone and swiped through the photos Gwen had sent me that morning. None of her, only Noah. He wore the biggest smile—well, what you could see of it from underneath the yogurt smeared all over his cheeks.

“I’m going to do everything I can to win your mama back,” I promised him.

But where did you start to prove to someone you were sorry for hurting them? Maybe…a message?

Toby

Hope you both have an awesome day.

I love you.

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