Page 58 of Second Chances
Chapter 25
“What are you doinghere?”
“Meg. I made a mistake,” Alex said and stepped into the foyer.
“Whoa. Hold it right there,” Charlotte said, stepping in between Megan and Alex. “I don’t believe that Megan invited you in.”
“I’m not a vampire,” Alex replied, looking over Charlotte’s shoulder at Megan.
“Close enough,” Charlotte muttered.
Alex took a step back, “There are some things I need to tell you, Megan.”
“It’s okay, Char. I’m fine.” Megan stepped around Charlotte.
Charlotte shook her head and grabbed a down jacket from the closet. “I’m going to go for a walk. Meg, I’ve got my phone if you need me.” She squeezed Megan’s hand on her way by and bumped Alex’s shoulder as he stood in the doorway.
“Can I come in, Meg?” Alex pleaded with Megan.
For the first time, Megan saw him for the pathetic man he was. He was staring at the doormat, and when he gathered the courage to glance up at her she saw that his eyes were circled and dark. He looked like he’d aged ten years since she last saw him.
“You can stand there and tell me what you need to say.”
Alex sighed and brought the flowers down from his chest so that the roses faced the ground.
“I can’t believe I ruined the best thing that ever happened to me. Megan, I want you. I need you back in my life.”
Megan couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The words coming out of his mouth were the ones that she longed to hear months ago. Now, they seemed foreign, as though Alex were speaking a different language.
“What about your mistress? What about the money you stole from me, from us?”
“She doesn’t matter Megan. And the money is all there. It’s in an account in the Cayman Islands. Come back to me, baby. I’m nothing without you.”
Megan didn’t feel anything except disgust. “So, you’re just going to walk away from this woman and child, just like you walked away from our life? You were ready to leave me high and dry, basically out on the streets. So, what? So, you could feel like you were twenty-five again? To go and start a new life with a new family? Have you any idea how much you hurt me?” Megan kept her tone even, but the volume of her voice was growing as the anger churned inside her belly.
“This is hardly ‘on the streets’.” Alex gestured to Charlotte’s house.
Classic Alex, Megan thought to herself. Always trying to diffuse the situation with humor, only this time she wasn’t falling for it. “You’re telling me that you want to show up, months later, with some lousy fucking roses, and expect me to jump back into your arms. To what, Alex? To be a step-mom to your love child? To help you run your business so that you can pay that woman alimony?”
Alex took a deep breath as though steeling himself, “That’s not going to happen. There’s no alimony.”
“Oh, that’s rich,” Megan laughed. “You figured out some way to screw her out of money too?”
“Megan, that baby wasn’t mine.”
This caught Megan off guard. “What do you mean that baby wasn’t yours?”
“I’ve left Roberta, the baby wasn’t mine. Meg. Just give me another chance.” He reached out and handed her the flowers. She automatically accepted them, her mind whirling with everything that he had just told her.
“Alex. I don’t love you anymore. You know it and I know it. Our relationship was over years ago. I think that it’s time for you to go.” Megan moved to shut the heavy door.
“Wait,” Alex shouted.
Megan paused and stood in the one-foot wide opening, shivering against the cold that was billowing in around Alex.
“You’re right, Meg. I don’t know who I was these past few months. I can’t believe I did those things to you. I once loved you. And I know that you once loved me. The pressure of trying to start a family and run the business, it just all became too much for me.”
His tone had changed and when he looked Megan in the eyes, she saw a glimmer of the man she once knew.
