Mason (Mail-Order Brides For Christmas)

She doesn’t answer me, but she does sniff. I move the angle from where I’m sitting, and I take in her puffy lips and the wet spot on the pillow she’s lying on. I crouch down on the floor next to her. “Mia, honey, look at me.”

She opens her eyes but doesn’t say a word. She’s been crying. There’s so much pain in her face, I can feel my heart cracking. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

She sits up and moves backwards on the bed. She’s putting distance between us, and I don’t like it. I rise from the floor and sit on the bed, my hip next to her legs. She’s watching me but not saying anything. That’s not Mia. Not the Mia I know, anyway. I put my hand on her leg and ignore the way it tenses under my palm. “What’s going on?”

She clenches her eyes shut. She starts talking, soft and low. “I think we made a mistake, Mason. I think this happened too fast.”

There’s a sudden heaviness on my chest. A part of me knew this was too good to be true. After only a few days, she’s ready to divorce me. My head starts to pound, and my heart starts to ache. “What do you mean we made a mistake?”

She finally opens her eyes. Her voice is saying one thing, but her eyes are telling me something else. She looks like she’s going to be physically ill. “I thought about it, and maybe it would be better if I go back home.”

“This is your home.” I enunciate each word. It’s the truth. This is her home now. Without her in it, it’s nothing but a house.

She shakes her head. “It’s fine. I’ll be okay. And we can stay married... I know how important Snow Valley is to you.”

She’s moved her knee from under my hand, and I clench the covers. “Stay married...” I mumble, shock hitting me right in the face. She’s leaving me. How in the world did I screw this up already?

She scoots across the bed to the other side and gets up. She’s in her nightgown, and it’s long, white, and flowy. It shouldn’t be sexual, the cotton material, the way it covers all her body parts, but still, it’s probably one of the sexiest nightgowns I’ve ever seen. All because it’s on Mia.

She turns away from me, her hands on the dresser. “Well, I mean we can stay married if you want to... If you found a way to save Snow Valley without it... then you can divorce me.”

She chokes up on the word divorce, and that’s the only saving grace I have to hold on to. She doesn’t act like she wants to leave me. She acts like this is hurting her... so why is she even doing it?

I stand up and walk around the bed. Her body freezes under my touch, but I put my arms around her, locking my hands around her middle and pulling her against me. She keeps her back straight, and I wait for her to pull away, but I already know I’m not going to let her. If she wants to end this marriage, I’m going to hold her while she tries to convince me she’s better off without me.

“What made you change your mind? What did I do?” I ask softly against her ear.

I raise my eyes and look at the mirror on the dresser in front of us. She’s staring at our reflection. “You didn’t do anything.”

She’s lying. I can see it in her face. “Bullshit, honey. Tell me what I did. I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me.”

Her body starts to melt into mine, and she leans her head back against my chest. She has her eyes closed again. “When I married you, I thought it would be forever. At least I wanted it to be.”

My arms tighten around her. Can’t she see I want the same thing? “Me too. That’s what I want too.”

Her eyes clench. “No, Mason. Please don’t lie to me. I can handle anything—well, almost anything—but don’t lie to me. I can’t handle that.”

“Look at me,” I tell her.

She shakes her head, and I turn her in my arms. She still has her eyes closed as if looking at me is going to be painful or something. “Look at me,” I tell her again.

She opens her eyes, and when she does, a lone tear falls down her cheek. “Fuck,” I mutter. I wipe it away with the pad of my finger and then pick her up in my arms. I carry her back across the room and sit in the chair with her in my lap. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She leans against my chest. “I’m leaving, Mason. It will be easier now than later. It’s killing me, but if I wait, I won’t survive it.”