“There are some things that wouldn’t go in the legal agreement, but that I need to have clear between us.”
“Okay.”
“Our friendship, the relationship we built these past three years, is ending. With that, all support ends. I need to know that you aren’t going to call for advice or just to check in, that there will be no favors asked, or granted, on either side.”
She blanched. He wasn’t certain he’d ever actually seen someone do that before. His gut lurched but he pushed ahead.
“If, as you say, this has to end for the health of both of us, I find that I need to be free from all sense of obligation where you’re concerned. When I go into a new relationship, I owe you nothing. My full loyalty will be to her.”
He’d thought it all through, considering the reasons why things hadn’t worked out with Anna.
“Of course.” Her voice broke.
“I’ll have my contractor call you when he’s ready for your input for The Bouncing Ball 2, as he’s doing with every other tenant.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded. “I’m finished. You can go.”
She left and he got back to work.
* * *
She was free. Completely, totally free. There’d be no more guilt. No more trying to be something she was not, to fit a mold that would make Braden happy.
No more worrying about him.
No more being concerned for his happiness.
There was someone out there for him. Someone who’d be concerned. Someone who’d actually make him happy—in good times and bad.
The good times were easy. It was the bad that had been their fatal trip up.
She read the papers he’d had drawn up. They were, explicitly, what she’d requested. The day after she’d seen him, she took the packet to her attorney for review. When she gave the go-ahead, Mallory signed them in front of a notary, with her attorney’s receptionist as a witness.
She dropped them in the mail and told her babies they were going out for a treat. But after a few licks of a vanilla ice cream cone, she threw the rest away and went home. In the nursery, she sat in the new rocker, holding a teddy bear. She thought about the past and about the future, telling herself that while she felt ripped apart at the seams now, the future would be better.
Great things lay ahead for her. For her children. And for Braden, too. They just had to get through the dark moments.
She cried herself to sleep that night and woke up with tears on her cheeks.
Like she had after Tucker died.
And just like then, she told herself she’d get through this.
She was the daughter of a prostitute and a product of the foster care system. Her life experiences had given her strength.
The universe, fate, God—whoever—had blessed her with the ability to nurture. And so she would. Her children and others.
She would fulfill her destiny. Live up to her potential.
She would know joy again.
Because she was a survivor, wasn’t she?
But, oh God, did living have to hurt so badly?
* * *