Page 133 of Resurfaced Passion

Because he needed something to do before his fucking head exploded he recounted those days in the hospital through a tight voice-box. “I came every day in hopes you’d get your memory back, waiting in the hallway, praying every second you’d ask for me. The doctors said it happened sometimes, that the brain had withstood such a trauma that it compartmentalized so it could go on functioning. Dissociative amnesia. That’s what you did, Paige, you locked everything away.”You locked me away.

“W-what was so traumatic about a car accident that I’d forget I was married for Pete’s sake?”

When he searched for the right words, pressing his lips into a tight line, Paige narrowed her eyes, almost as if she had remnants of her old self when she’d always known when he was withholding something from her. “Oh, I get it, you don’t want to tell me.” She snapped. And just like that she slammed the bathroom door in his face, and he heard her gently crying.

His guts ripped out when he heard the lock engage. Shoulders dropped and he really fucking thought about knocking the thing down. Being locked out from her left him unstable at best.

But being an unbearable fucker was the last thing she needed.

“God, Paige. Open up, baby. I’m just trying not to overwhelm you with all the information at once.”

“I’m—I’m.” Hic. Hic. “I’m already overwhelmed. I don’t think I can get any more overwhelmed.”

Her sobs killed him.

“Please open the door, ladybug. You can trust me, I swear it.” Swallowing his panic, he rested his forehead to the white paneling.

“I don’t know if I can. You kept things from me. Important things.”

“You can, baby. I’m your Judson, remember?”

“I don’t remember anything, that’s just it! You were the one person who should have told me everything, no matter what.”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“Yeah, now that you’ve been caught out. It’s too late.”

Reaper growled and pressed his hand to the door; she was only on the other side and yet he felt fucking miles from her. “I had reasons, bug. Important fucking reasons. Open the door and let’s talk about it.”

She swung the door open suddenly, jarring him back a step, and she pushed past him storming into the bare living room, she looked around like she’d forgotten this wasn’t her home anymore.

“I need—I think…”

“No.” he growled, and he went against his instincts to give her space and took her in his arms, she stood like a block of ice. “You are not leaving me, baby.”

There was a new sense Reaper was rolling the dice once more to save his life.

“I think I need some time alone.” She murmured, cracking his heart.

“Don’t leave me, baby. Please, don’t leave me again.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“Nothing prepared me for being a Mrs.” - Paige

Paige stared long and hard at the woman in the ceiling high mirror in Winter’s bathroom until her eyes stung and felt no different though everything had changed tonight.

She was no longer the woman she thought.

She was someone else.

Someone else to Reaper.

Wife.

He was her husband and had been her husband from the day she met him.

The second time, she meant. God, this was confusing and making her brain pulse.

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