Page 5 of Claiming His Wife
"Free? You've always been free. Free enough stay away for five years and waltz back here demanding the impossible."
"You don't understand," she returned coolly and rather oddly as she heard herself.
"Then make me. I tried for almost one year after you left me to tell you my side of things and to make things right between us, but you refuted every effort I made," he said resolutely as he turned back to the view.
The switch in his tone struck her in awe and caused her to mellow in resolve. She bit back her previously composed words and gulped them down in a hot, choking manner.
"I met someone else and he proposed to me. I can’t accept his proposal until this is settled between us," she explained, ignoring everything else he had said. She wasn’t interested in revisiting the past. Whatever happened, happened, and there was nothing that could be done to change it. Nothing she wanted to do to change it either.
She saw his body freeze, and his hands formed fists. He then turned toward her slowly and she could see the frown across his forehead. She thought she saw pain in his eyes as well, but that couldn’t be possible. There was no reason for him to be pained. Her revelation, no doubt, was shocking and had caught him off guard. She took his stunned silence as the perfect opportunity to continue her argument.
"I care for him deeply."
“Do you love this man?”
“Yes, I do. Very much.”
“Okay, you love him. But are you in love with him?”
The question took her by surprise. How could she explain what she felt toward Jon? She didn’t love him with that all-encompassing passion she had felt toward Finn, but she did love him in a way that was sobering. She could think when she was around Jon, which was refreshing. With Finn, it was all about feeling. He was her drug and she was always high. He made her feel like she could conquer anything she wanted to and that the world belonged to her. She also realized that when you love someone so strongly, the heartbreak is ten times worse. She never wanted to feel that kind of heartbreak again.
“I don’t owe you any explanation,” she said finally.
He continued his intent study of her face, and the air in the room felt thinner. She felt uncomfortable under his microscopic stare.
"So, not only do you slink back into town after four years of pretending I didn’t exist, you returned solely to collect what you need to go back into your faithless love nest? How dare you stand in front of me and demand I give you an annulment,” he said incredulously, and then took a step toward her. She stood there, unable to move, surprised by his outburst. “We are married, Kalilah, not acquaintances. Doesn’t the sacredness of the union give you pause? Have you thought thoroughly about what you’re asking of me?”
Despite his obvious anger, she didn’t think he would become violent toward her. She knew he would never hurt her, not physically at least. She leveled her stare and responded with as much assertion as she could muster.
“Thisunionas you call it has been anything but sacred. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to break free from this farce. And yes, I have thought about this. I gave it five full years of thought. Now, thanks to the genuine love Jonathan has afforded me, I finally have a reason to end this marriage and I don’t give two shits if you don't like it,” she countered, her pulse pumping with barely suppressed outrage. How dare he lay the blame at her feet?
“You think our relationship was meaningless? A lie?” he ground out; his piercing blue stare was fixated on her.
"Yes," she responded, “and at everyone’s directing, I played my part to the very hilt. Now I’m done. Allow me to live my life and be happy with someone who loves me.”
“You can’t possibly believe that our plans and what we shared weren’t real? I loved you and you loved me. It was me and you against the world. We made vows to love each other forever, and now you want an annulment from me, so you can marry a man you’re not even in love with?”
Her lips parted to respond but he cut her off.
“Don’t you dare lie to me about your feelings toward this man.”
She snapped her mouth shut.Let him think what he wants,she thought. She didn’t want to think about those girly fantasies and promises either. That naïve girl had disappeared a long time ago, along with those hopes and dreams.
She was relieved when he turned.Good.He must have realized that she meant what she said.
"Tell me about this bastard who wants to come between a man and his wife." He said ‘wife’ possessively and turned to face her again, his voice tight.
It broke her heart that what he mourned was not her; he probably saw all his ambitious dreams slipping away.I don’t care,she said repeatedly in her mind. No matter how much she said it though, it didn't stop the bruise on her heart from widening.
“He isn't a bastard,” she snapped. “He is twice the man you'll ever be and I can't wait to be his.” She was deliberately being vindictive, to hurt him how he had hurt her. She suspected she didn’t miss her mark. His face turned a stony mask at her declaration. His blue pools turned darker and colder than she had ever seen them.
“No matter how much you deny it, the truth remains that you are my wife, and that’s how it’s going to remain.”
"It’s hardly been a marriage, and besides – it hasn't been consummated," she replied noncommittally. She cursed inwardly for bringing their sex life (or lack thereof) into the mix.
"That’s my fault." His words sounded weak and she knew what he was implying.
When they had started dating, years before, he didn’t do much more than kiss her. He claimed it was because she was much younger than him, and because she was his boss’s daughter and he didn’t want to cross a line that they’d never be able to uncross. At the time, he was twenty-five and she was nineteen. She had fallen head over heels for him. She had tried to seduce him many times, but he always refuted her advancements at the last minute. She believed that to be one of the two reasons he’d proposed to her six months after they’d started dating. He had fooled her into believing that he had wanted to do things the “right” way with her. But now she knew better. He was only using her to get promoted within the company, without doing anything that may hurt his chances. Not that anything would; her father would’ve sold her off to him anyway.
