Page 112 of The Love You Fight For
“I don’t want topossessyou, Sam. I want toprotectyou.”
“I can protect myself,” she snaps, her eyes narrowing, daring me to bring up the bruise on her cheek and her swollen lip.
I can see the challenge in her eyes. She’s already formulated an argument against it. She’s prepped and ready for fucking battle, butI don’t want to be another man she has to fight. I don’t want her to battle with me.Neverwith me.
“And what about me, Sam?” I question, my voice softer. “What about us?”
She shakes her head and clamps her eyes shut.
“Don’t do that.” Her voice breaks. “Don’t make this about us. It’s not about you. I have to do it, Chris. I have to, but I promise I’ll come back. Just trust me, okay? Just trust that I’m informed and aware and that I know what I’m fucking doing. I’m not some damsel in distress who needs you to come out and save me. I’ve got this fucking covered, and if you can be okay with that, I promise you I will come back to you. But if you’re going to try and jump in here, manipulate me or give me an ultimatum so that my behavior becomes something that you feel comfortable with, then we will never work. I have had enough of those men in my life. I refuse to fall victim to another.”
Her last statement takes my breath away. That is exactly the opposite of what I want to be for her. The exact opposite of who I am.
“I would never do that. I would never manipulate you or give you an ultimatum.”
“Then let me go and trust me to know what’s best forme. And believe me when I say I will be back. But I have to go.”
The finality in her tone doesn’t fill me with pain the way I expect, and I realize that’s because I was expecting it. Deep down, I knew it was coming. She was always going to go back.
My girl doesn’t give up.
I’ve seen the truth in the determined glint in her eyes.
I’ve heard it in her tired laugh.
She’s going to see this through to the end, whatever it is, and I’m going to be there with her through it all.
“I’ll come with, then.”
She shakes her head.
“No. No, you stay here. I just have to get through the fundraising gala, and then I’ll let the chips fall how they’re meant to.”
The fundraising gala sparks recognition in my mind, and I remember Sable’s words a few weeks ago.
Supposed to be huge.
Five thousand a chair.
Anyone who’s anyone is going to be there.
“You don’t have to do this,” I try again. “You don’t have to go.”
She gives me a sad smile.
“I do, though. I couldn’t live with myself if I don’t see it through.”
I close the distance between us. I cup her neck. I focus on her pulse. I drop my forehead to hers.
“Come back to me,” I whisper over her lips.
I feel her smile.
“Always.”
I standon my porch and watch as Sam drives off in her rental car.
I wait ten minutes, staring down the street long after her taillights have disappeared. And then my feet move without my prompting.
