He doesn’t want our baby.
I won’t listen to him cause me pain. But I can’t stay here either. I want out.
I head to the bathroom, dry my eyes, and pinch my cheeks, trying to look like I haven’t spent the last ten minutes crying, and then I storm toward the kitchen where I can hear Kade cooking.
“Hey, dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” Kade says.
I can’t wait ten minutes.
I pull the heavy ring off my finger and place it on the counter.
Kade raises an eyebrow. “Something wrong with the ring?”
“No, something is wrong with whatever this is that we are doing.”
He stops stirring the delicious smelling Asian dish he is making and faces me.
“I’m sorry Larkyn, but I don’t understand, and I’ve had a shitty day, so I’d love it if you could speak plain English and get whatever fight we are about to have over with.”
“I’ll make this easy for you then. I want out of our contract. I’m done being fake married to you.”
He blinks rapidly, and then narrows his eyes at me, as he cockily crosses his arms. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired. This isn’t what I thought it would be.”
He cocks his head to one side. “And what did you think would happen?”
“I thought that you would buy me jewelry every other week, take me to fancy parties, and go on nice vacations with me. I thought I would get to enjoy more of the perks of being your wife,” I say, lying through my teeth. I don’t care about any of those things, but I know that money is sensitive with Kade. It’s the main thing we’ve fought over. What I did with his money. And after Harlow tried to blackmail him for money, I have no doubt he is very sensitive about the subject now.
He narrows his eyes like he’s looking through to my soul. “What would it take for you to stay?”
I wasn’t expecting him to talk so calmly about this or to ask me that question, but I know my answer immediately.
“I want five million dollars,” I say, lying. All I want is his heart. I want him to love his future child the way that I do. But that’s asking too much.
He doesn’t even flinch, and I think he might say fine. He’ll do it. Maybe if he’s willing to pay me five million dollars when he just denied it to Harlow, that means I’m special to him. Instead, he stands stoically looking at me while he reads me like an open book.
“What did you do with the money I gave you?”
I can feel my stomach clenching as he speaks. I’m about to be sick. I can’t stay here much longer without upchucking. And yet I can’t force myself to leave because I know these are our last moments together.
“I bought the most expensive house I could afford with it.”
His eyes drop in disappointment. “Then, I’ll have my lawyer draw up the terms to release you from my contract.”
He walks toward me looking me dead in the eyes. I can’t move. All I can do is smell his familiar smell of a deep cologne. I take in the last flicker of his dark eyes, and the curve of his lips as he frowns.
“You owe me nothing. And I owe you nothing. I’ll put into the media that the divorce was amicable. And then we are done.” When he says the word done, he turns and walks back to his pot, stirring it like we didn’t just have the soul-crushing conversation we just had.
Contrastingly, it takes everything in my body to turn and walk to my bedroom before my stomach empties into the toilet. I don’t know where I’m moving or what I’m doing with my life. I don’t know if, in a few years, I’m going to regret ever agreeing to fake marry Kade or if I’m going to appreciate it because I love our child so much. I can’t think beyond this moment. Because in this moment, I’m pregnant, and alone.
18
Kade