Marriage For One

“Can I get you anything, Mrs. Hawthorne?”

I wished I could’ve taken my eyes off of her, because maybe then I would’ve missed her flinch. She shook her head and her lips tipped up just for a second. “No. Thank you, Cynthia.”

The door closed and we were finally alone.

Her eyes met mine as I moved to stand in front of her. “You’re not here for lunch.”

“No.”

I braced myself. “I’m listening.”

There was that loud silence again as a few seconds passed and her shoulders drooped in defeat, her expression changing, crumpling in front of my eyes.

“Tell me it’s a lie, Jack. Tell me it’s a lie so I can breathe again.” Untangling her arms, she placed a fist on her heart as if trying to ease her pain.

I gritted my teeth, my hands clenching in my pockets. “You’re gonna have to be more specific.”

She dropped her hand from her chest and tipped her chin up, her eyes already shining with unshed tears. “Tell me you didn’t pay Joshua to break up with me. Tell me—” Her voice broke, causing physical pain in the middle of my chest. “Tell me you didn’t lie to me about everything.”

I sighed, trying to keep it together, trying to keep it locked in.

“I can’t tell you that, Rose,” I admitted, my voice coming out harsher than I’d intended.

She stared at me as if she was staring at a stranger and her first tear fell down, marking a line down her cheek.

Then the second one came.

Then the third.

The fourth.

She didn’t make a single sound. Other than blinking her eyes as her tears kept falling, she didn’t move even an inch.

“Did you have fun?”

“Excuse me?”

Her voice got stronger as she raised her voice. “I asked if you had fun.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you have fun playing your games?”

“You don’t know what you’re—”

She dabbed at her tears with the back of her hand, her spine straight. That was good. I could handle her gearing up to hurt me—God knew I deserved it.

“You’re right, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. You paid my fiancé to break up with me.” The next thing I knew, she was pushing at my chest with both hands. She was shaking, and I rocked back a step as she asked, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

When she hit me a second time, I grabbed her arms right above her elbows before she repeated it a third time. If I’d thought it would help her, I’d have let her hit me countless times, but it wasn’t going to change what I had done.

“Calm down.”

“Calm down?” She was crying in earnest, trying to get out of my hold, trying to escape my touch. “You’ve been lying to me from the first moment we met. You ruined everything.”

I tightened my grip on her arms, pulling her body closer to mine when her breathing started to get all choppy. “I saved you from him,” I forced out through gritted teeth. “I’m assuming he came back to your coffee shop since that’s what he threatened me with when I told him I was done paying him.”

“Saved me? You saved me?” Her breath hitched, but she stopped struggling in my arms. “Let me go, Jack.”

“So you can leave without listening to me? No.”

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere before I hear an explanation. I want you to let me go because I don’t want you to touch me ever again.”

Her eyes burned into mine. I’d never forget the pain, the hurt, the anger, the hate I saw in them. Knowing I had to listen, knowing she was right, I let her go and she backed away from me, rubbing her arms where I had held them.

“Are you okay?” I managed to ask, thinking I had held her more tightly than I’d realized.

“Oh, never better.” She put more distance between us. She was standing only a few steps away and I could still smell her perfume, yet she might as well have been miles away. “You can stop pretending to care about me. Go on, Jack—tell me more lies. Tell me what you did. I’m listening.”

My jaw tightened. I deserved that, but it didn’t mean it hurt any less. “I have no idea what he told you, Rose, but he lied.”

“Right. Right, because you would never do something like that.”

“No. I lied to you, too. I’m not saying otherwise. I lied from the very beginning.”

“How noble of you to admit that now after I learn everything.”

My patience snapped. “What do you think you know? Did he explain how he was only with you because of your uncle’s money? How he only got close to you because he thought you had a better relationship with them? If he did then please, my apologies. You should go back to him.”

She glared at me, her eyes boring into mine. “You offered him money to break up with me. What gives you the right?”