He nodded.
Clearly, our modest lifestyle had masked just how well we were doing, and how successful he was.
“That’s a lot of zeros…” I started to count.
“It’s ten million for each year of the business. If we invest it well, we can live off the interest.”
“Our great-great-great grandchildren could live off the interest.” I looked up at him again. “I didn’t realize it was worth this much…how truly magnificent you were in business.”
He grinned. “I do alright. About twenty percent of that is from a new project in cloud security. We started getting calls about buying the company when that got out. I’d hoped to have it all wrapped up a week ago, but then the buyer made changes to the deal that I didn’t like. That was a bad day.” He shook his head and I realized that was probably when I left to visit my dad.
“Anyway, Kyle had the bright idea to reach out to some competitors, and all of a sudden there was a bidding war.”
I couldn’t believe this was happening. How had I missed just how wonderful he was? I missed it because I was lost in my own world and stopped paying attention.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this. You love your work.” I didn’t want him to resent me for giving up the business.
“I like my work. I love you. If we get sick of each other or bored, we can do something else. In fact, I was thinking about starting a foundation. Something to help with cancer patients and their families.”
The emotion swelling inside me became too much. I burst into tears.
25
Brayden
Fifteen minutes ago, I was ready to chuck this attempt at reconciliation, at least until my anger and frustration settled down. Couldn’t Terra see that despite my ineptitude at giving her what she wanted, I was trying? Who spent the last month wracking his brain out to try and take time off? Me. Who had called and texted every fucking night to say “I love you” without a response? Me. Who was the one trying to reconnect and fix this marriage? Me.
She hadn’t done one damn thing except withdraw and leave. Worse still, she saw my latest attempt at reconciliation as manipulation. I told my kids that I'd get them a shrimp so I did. I had many failings, but manipulating or buying my children wasn’t one of them.
I was certain when she’d suggested I was buying the kids that she was done with me, and her coming home was simply to appease the kids. If she couldn’t even try to meet me halfway and was hell bent on turning everything I did into something bad, then that was my answer. She was done.
Since I had nothing to lose, I vented. As I did, I was sure I was doing more damage, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I was tired of being the only one who wanted to save our marriage.
And then, she changed. All of a sudden, she was listening. It was a fucking miracle. That is until she appeared to make herself the bad guy. There were no bad guys. Just two people who lost their connection and now needed to find their way back to each other.
When she broke down in tears, I wasn’t sure what to think, but I hoped it was good. Not that I wanted her to cry, but I didn’t want them to be the type of tears that had her running from me again.
Instinct had me pulling her to me. “Please tell me these are happy tears.” I cradled her to me, feeling so fucking glad to hold her again.
“I’m a terrible wife.” Her words were muffled against my chest.
“I don’t think so.” I tilted her head back. “I think you’re strong and brave—”
“I’m a bitch.”
I flinched. “That’s my wife you’re talking about.” I smiled, wanting to lighten the mood.
“All this time, it was all about me and what I wanted, and I didn’t even consider your work or how hard you were trying to keep the family together.”
I wiped her tears. “Admittedly, I did a shitty job at showing you. Now I’ll have 24/7 to show you.” It occurred to me that while she was saying all the right things, I still wasn’t sure if she loved me. I thought she must, but she hadn’t said so.
Even so, I didn’t want to beg, so I just continued on as if this was a new beginning for us.
“Our first order of business will be to kill this cancer. Then we’ll do something fun. Maybe a trip to Europe or Disneyland. Maybe we can home-school the kids and take them around the world.”
“You’re amazing. I’m not sure I deserve you.”
“Hey.” I didn’t like that. “I appreciate that you understand me better now and see how much I’m willing to do for us, but I was an asshole. I did a lot of things wrong. To be honest, I didn’t realize how much you did until I was having to do some of it. I don’t like doing bills.”