Page 46 of Love or Leave

Around the house?

Antonio stopped dead in his tracks before slowly turning toward Fran. Her features were all contorted and pinched.

Our house?

He wanted to ask it, but he already knew the answer.

"Sorry," Blake said, his smile gone as he glanced between the two of them. "I thought… Fran said you were okay with it. Sorry, man…"

Antonio broke his cold stare and silently shook his head as he ripped the prescription paper from the pad. He didn't know how to even start processing that Fran had moved a guy into their house.

Hishouse.

Antonio’s whole body stayed rigid as he backed up, trying to put as much space between them as possible.

"I don't live there permanently," Blake said, his tone more serious than Antonio would have expected. "I don't want to be the asshole here. We just—"

"It's fine," Antonio said, cutting him off. He worked to unclench his jaw. "If the rash gets worse, come back. It won't take much for it to become infected, especially in that area."

He turned and walked away without another word, heading for the front desk—until he remembered Blake and Fran would have to pass by on their way out. Instead, he veered off to thesmall office in the back. Unfortunately, Fran knew about the hidden room from all the times she’d visited him at work.

Seconds later, she appeared in the doorway.

"Tonio?" she asked in the sweet voice he used to love. There was a time he would have happily listened to that voice until he took his dying breath.

Now it set his teeth on edge.

"I'm busy," he said over the ringing in his ears.

"He only stays over sometimes. He doesn't live there."

Antonio squeezed his eyes shut, unsure how to process the situation. On the one hand, he was devastated that he'd been replaced. On the other hand, he felt as if the final straw hit his back and finally broke it.

His mouth opened and words poured out, unfiltered.

"My nonno gave me the down payment for that house as a wedding present."

Fran dropped her head. "You said you didn't want to sell it," she began.

Yeah, because I wanted to move back into it.

"And you said you didn't want to buy out my half, either," she continued.

Right, because I didn't want to live there without you.

"I have no clue how to move on," she admitted.

I didn't want you to.

"It's like you engineered this divorce so Icouldn'tmove on."

Antonio’s shoulders slumped and forced himself to turn in his seat to face her. "I never wanted any of this."

"No," she bit back. "You were happy being completely miserable."

"Completely miserable isn't fair," he said. "We could have solved all our problems."

She looked away from him, down at the floor, then back up. "Is that what you want?"

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