Page 89 of Down the Aisle
After all of this, after having his hands reduced to nubs, he was still a rat ass bastard. James was still the person I ran away from nearly two years ago.
"It's because you are weak and can't help but love me even after all this shit," James stated coldly.
Surprising even myself, I shot back without missing a beat, "But did you ever love me?"
The eerie silence and his cold stare void of all emotions as his face twisted with utter shock was more than enough of an answer.
"Did. You. Ever. Love. Me." The words came slow, deliberate, each syllable cracking the air like a whip to make sure they went across clearly the first time around. My voice trembled, but not with weakness—with fury.
"Of course I fucking love you!" he shot back, his tone laced with indignation, not tenderness. Not even a flicker of regret. "Would I have married you if I didn't? Had a kid with you? Built a home with you?" His words were sharp, biting, but they didn't wound me like they used to. Not anymore. Then came the final blow. "You're being fucking ridiculous. Do you hear yourself?"
A strange calm washed over me, a quiet clarity that only comes in the eye of a storm. A smile curled on my lips—not from happiness, but from bitter understanding. "No," I whispered, my head shaking slowly as I let out a dry, humorless laugh. "You did all of that for you."
How did I not see any of this before?
"You didn't marry me because you loved me," I said, my voice breaking but steady enough to cut through his silence. "You married me because it fit the story everyone spun about us. The perfect high school sweethearts. You couldn't bear the thought of being the loser who let the ‘golden one' get away. That's what it was about, wasn't it? Winning. Keeping me so no one else could." My lips trembled, but my words kept coming, sharp andunrelenting. "You couldn't let me have anything in my life—not a shred of happiness that didn't revolve around you. Not a dream. Not a single goddamn piece of myself."
I stood, wiping the stray tears off my face with one hand, and his spit—the last piece of him I would ever let linger—off with the other. My chest heaved as I fought to steady the storm building in me. "You couldn't let me outshine you. You had to be ‘the man,' the one everyone admired. And I let you. Iletyou," I spat, my voice rising with years of pent-up fury. "Ever since we got hitched right out of high school, you've done nothing but belittle me. Tear me down piece by piece until there was nothing left of the girl I used to be."
My laugh was bitter, sharp like broken glass. "I dropped out of college because of you. Because you convinced me—no, youmademe believe—I wasn't cut out for it. That I was too stupid for pharmacy, for any degree. I gave up my dreams for you! And you—you fed me that bullshit about how life as a housewife was the right choice. Theonlychoice. And when I fought back, when I tried to hold on to even a sliver of myself, you got meaner, crueler. Until I gave in. Until I believed the lie and made it my truth."
I paused, my breath coming in short gasps as I stared at him—really stared at him—for the first time. He didn't look like the towering, intimidating figure I had once seen. He looked small. Pathetic. Weak.
"What moments we had—no matter how sweet, no matter how deep—they were never for me," I said, my voice softer now but laced with a newfound strength. "They were for you. To feed your ego, to make your perfect little life shine brighter, to keep you on that pedestal you built for yourself. Maybe some of it was real, maybe there were blips of truth in the mess of it all. But looking back now…" I shook my head, the realization cuttingthrough me like a blade. "You never did anything for me. It was always for you."
The weight I had carried for years lifted as I spoke those words. I wasn't asking for his understanding. I wasn't looking for an apology. I was reclaiming the pieces of myself he had stolen, one broken shard at a time.
"You know," I began, my voice soft but laced with an edge sharp enough to slice through his fragile pride, "if I had asked Adam the same question, he wouldn't have hesitated. Not for a second. Not for a single, goddamn nanosecond." I pushed the stray hair out of my face, a serene smile tugging at my lips as I let the words linger, as if savoring the thought of a love that didn't need to be begged for. "Adam would've dropped to his knees, professed his undying love for me without an ounce of doubt, kissed my feet, and showered me with a passion so raw it'd take my breath away."
I let the moment hang in the air, watching the flicker of something—rage, jealousy, fear—pass through James's eyes. It didn't matter anymore. Not to me.
"Adam would give me theworldif I asked him to," I continued, my voice steady and filled with a newfound conviction. "He'd move heaven and earth, not because he wants to prove something, but because he loves me. I see it in the way he looks at me—every single time. It's in his actions, in the little things he does, in the way he makes me feel like I'm the only person in the universe."
I inhaled deeply, letting the words settle in my chest like armor. Lifting my chin, I looked James square in the eyes, my gaze unflinching. "You never cared for me. And shame on me for not seeing it sooner. Shame on me for believing in the facade, for making excuses for you, for convincing myself you were enough when you never even tried to be."
The realization hit like a tidal wave, crashing into me with both pain and clarity. "Even after everything—after finding love with Adam, after finally knowing what it feels like to be cherished—I was about to come back to you. To this. Toallof it." My voice broke on the last word, not from weakness, but from the sheer weight of letting it go.
No more, though. No more hurting over James and what we had.
It stops today.
"I don't wish you death after everything, but everything you have coming to you is all deserved."
This was truly goodbye.
Not only was it goodbye to James, my soon-to-be dead husband, but farewell to my old life forever.
Goodbye to Elisabella Stone, and hello to the future Missus Eliza Santini.
Chapter 34
Adam
To say the nextday was awkward would be a severe understatement. We'd both gone to bed the night prior in silence and coldness, and neither of us uttered a single word to each other thus far.
I didn't dare utter a single word to her as I followed her after breakfast. It broke my heart how she shoved me away in bed this morning, as if I was some diseased person—an unworthy bastard.
Ideally, the smart thing to do was actually give her space, but my nerves wouldn't be at ease unless I physically saw her with my own eyes. So, I followed her at a distance throughout nearlythe whole morning, not even bothering to keep myself hidden because there was no point.
