Page 51 of Coming Home Country
Filling my lungs, I turned my head to the side. If this wasn’t such a serious situation, I might’ve laughed at seeing him fully put together at six in the morning. How had I ever thought I could marry someone who couldn’t stand to have a single hair out of place? Already, the pressure to be perfect, to meet his high expectations had forced me to becomeRebecca.
Let’s be honest, Rebecca kinda sucked. Bex was far superior; she just wasn’t the right woman for Aaron. And I was okay with that.
“I can’t do this anymore.” Though my voice was quiet, it held conviction.
“I know I fucked up, and you’re pissed. But it was a one-off. In the past three years, how many times have I let work leak into our relationship? This was the first time, and it’ll be the last. I swear.”
He was either oblivious to what I was trying to say or refusing to accept it. My guess was the former, his ego being too large to comprehend that anyone would ever want to break up withhim.
Sliding the ring off my left hand, I offered the piece of jewelry to him, making my intentions clear.
Aaron barely managed to hold back an eye roll. “No need to be dramatic. It wasonefight. Put the ring back on, Rebecca. You’ve made your point.”
“Aaron, don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
He clicked his tongue. “Okay, I see what you’re doing. What’s it going to take to smooth this over, hmm? You wanna go on a shopping spree andtest the limit of my credit card? How about we finally take that vacation I’ve been begging you to go on? Spend a few days in a tropical paradise and forget the rest of the world exists?”
It was time to drive the point home. “I’m not in love with you.”
The man scoffed. “Is that supposed to bother me?”
I gawked at him. “It should.”
Giving me a look of pure condescension, he said, “Do you know how many matches between high-powered individuals are based on love? Hardly any. It’s not the deal breaker you might think it is.”
“It is for me.” I pushed to my feet, grabbed his hand, and dropped the engagement ring into the center of his palm before forcing his fingers to close around it.
A surprised rush of air flew past Aaron’s lips as he looked up at me. “You’re serious about this?”
“I probably should have never let it get to this point, and for that, I’m sorry.”
Aaron’s brown eyes hardened, turning almost black, and instinctively, I stepped back. Shaking his head as he stood, he let out a dark chuckle. “Don’t you understand how fortunate you are that I chose you? There are easily a dozen other girls who wouldkillto take your place.”
I shrugged. “Then marry one of them.”
“Maybe I will,” he shot back. “I’m sure any one of them will do more than just lie there in bed, checked out and wishing they were anywhere else when we fuck.”
Not interested in slinging insults, I moved on to more pressing matters. “If you get on the road in the next hour, you can make it to Oklahoma City in time to catch the first flight out.”
He brushed past me on his way to the door, but halfway across the threshold, he paused, turning back. “Oh, and Rebecca?”
Lord help me, if allowing him to have the last word was what it took for him to leave, then so be it.
“What, Aaron?”
“I’ve been fucking my secretary for the past six months. Just thought you should know.”
“Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Have a safe trip home.”
A flush crept up his neck and onto his face, his cool façade slipping when I remained unbothered by his admission of infidelity. Given my past, you’d expect it to invoke some emotion, but I was completely indifferent when it came to Aaron. If I was honest with myself, I’d felt that way toward him for a long time, maybe even since the beginning.
The door slamming brought me back to my senses, and it sank in that I was finally free.
Instantly, I made the decision that there would be no more settling, no more compromising. I only got one life, so I owed it to myself not to waste any more time on things that didn’t bring me happiness.
Chapter 14
Tucker
