Page 92 of Cruel Love
He brought the car to a stop outside my house a few hours later,and for a minute, I didn’t move. I didn’t want to go inside my empty house.
“I guess congratulations are in order,”he said, giving me a grin.“Chairman of the board at long last. It’s well deserved.”
I grunted my reply before forcing my body to move.
Stepping out of the car, I whirled around when Jackson closed hisdoor too.“What are you doing?”
“Thought I’d keep you company,”he replied as if the answer wasobvious.
“I don’t need a fucking babysitter,”I snapped, glaring at him.
He raised a brow.“I know. But I thought you could use a friend.”
Tension oozed out of my body at his words and I closed my eyesbriefly, feeling like a dick. I was pushing away the one person who’dbeen by my side no matter what. When I opened my eyes again, he was watching me with concern on his face. I sighed and indicated for him to follow me. Neither of us spoke aswe made our way through the silent house. I’d instructed the staff to vacate the place for a few days.
I wanted to be alone to wallow in my self-hatred.
As I walked into the kitchen with Jackson behind me, I froze whenmy gaze landed on the paperworkthatwas lying on the table. Before I could stop myself, I crossed over to it and picked it up, finding Willow’s signature scrawled over the divorce papers.
Like a ton of bricks had landed on me, realization hit.
She had gone.
Numbness swept through me as an exhale of breath from beside medragged my attention away from Willow's signature. I turned to see Jackson looking over my shoulder at the paper, his body sagging with disappointment.
“I didn’t think she’d sign them,”he said, almost to himself.
I slammed the paper down on the table and stormed over to thefridge, pulling out a beer, and downing it in one go. The bitter taste did nothing to make me feel better. In fact, all it did was clear the numbness, and left in its place wasmonumental pain. My black heart cracked down the middle as a lump formed in my throat.
She was really gone.
I launched my bottle against the wall, the glass smashing into athousand irreparable pieces like my heart. From the other side of the room, Jackson watched helplessly.
I shook my head, the words I’d kept in for weeks now suddenlyneeding to purge themselves from my body, the way I’d spent weeks trying to purgeherfrom inside me.
“I love her,”I said weakly, staring at the streaks of beer trickling downthe wall.“I tried so hard to not feel anything for her when I should have embraced it. I treated her like shit when I should have treated her like a goddamn princess.”I met Jackson’s gaze, a look of sympathy etched on his face.“I should have told her every fucking daythatI loved her.”
“Do you meanthat?”a soft voice said from behind me.
I spun, my eyes widening at the sight before me.
Willow stood in the doorway, her fingers fidgeting as she stared at me, and her collar still firmly in place around her throat. I took her in, not believing she was there, and for whatseemedlike an age, neither of us moved.
“I’ll…um…I’ll leave you two to talk,”Jackson said. A few secondslater, the front door closed behind him.
“You signed the divorce papers,”I said, still not convinced she wasreal.
She took a step forward.“I did. And I took my collar off, and I grabbedthe money.”She took another step forward, her eyes never leaving mine.“I got as far as the car waiting outside before…”
She trailed off like she was suddenly unsure of herself.“Before what,Mouse?”
“Before I realizedthatI didn’t want to leave,”she replied.“Before IrealizedthatI didn’t want to be alone in the world. Before I realizedthatI’ve never felt safer than here with you.”She closed the remaining space between us so we were only inches apart.“Before I realizedthatI love you.”
My eyes narrowed on her. “Say that again,” I snarled, an array of emotions rushing through me.
“I love you.”
I lost control. Crashing my mouth down on hers, I grabbed her hipsand hoisted her into my arms as my tongue plunged into her mouth. Her small hands fisted my hair, tugging as she kissed me back with as much fervor.
