Page 10 of A Family Affair: The Cabin
The outcome didn’t matter. Zachary had destroyed their chances of a happily-ever-after the second he began keeping secrets, secrets that supported lies…lies that ruined her belief that love and goodness prevailed…that if you loved someone, it would be enough…that if you led a good life, then fortune would guide you to happiness…
Lies, all of them.
“Elissa?”
She blinked hard, tried to focus as he crossed the room and knelt beside her. When had he started looking so pathetic, so guilty? How had she never noticed this before? Because she’d never looked, never believed there was a reason to doubt.
“Is there more, Zachary?”Do not let there be more than this. How much more could there be than his admission that he and Julia shared a child, that he’d struggled these many months with a way to tell Elissa the truth? “If you have any hopes of a life together, you’d better make sure you’ve told me everything.” Look at her, telling her own lies. Hell could freeze over ten times before she’d give him another chance. Still, her words might pull the truth from him.
He placed a hand on her arm, his gaze intense. There’d been a time when she’d gotten lost in that look. “I don’t want to hurt you more than I already have.”
That sounded like a confession without the confession. “Tell me.”Therewasmore.
A shrug, a sigh, and then, “I might have left out a few details about my relationship with Julia.”
“Details?” She forced her breathing to remain even, her voice calm.
The man who’d broken her heart and was now ripping it apart withdetailscontinued. “I might have been intimate with her a few times after…after you and I met.”
Did he think using a word likeintimatedidn’t sound as bad as sex? Like in some way, it was less hurtful? “So, you were having sex with both of us.”
“Elissa—”
“Is that everything?”Dear God, what else could there be?
He looked away, lowered his voice. “I’m only telling you this because I don’t want any more lies between us, okay? You’re the one I love, the one I want to marry.” Pause. “You are my heart, Elissa Cerdi, my soul.”
She pushed aside the words that had once stolen her breath. What were words without meaning behind them? “Tell me the rest, Zachary. Tell me all of it.”
Tears shimmered in his dark eyes, slid down his cheeks. “Julia’s pregnant again.”
