Committed (Betrothed 4)

Could we ever be friends?

I stared at my phone for a while, considering what I should do. The silence was suffocating. I didn’t just lose my husband, but my best friend, my everything. My life felt so much emptier without him. Maybe that would change when Andrew was here, but I knew there would always be a hole in my heart.

Maybe it was because I was lonely, maybe it was because I missed him too much, but I called him. The blue light lit up my dark room, and I pressed the phone to my ear and listened to it ring.

It didn’t ring for long. His deep voice announced itself over the phone, quiet but strong. “Sofia.” He didn’t say it with the same affection he used to possess. There was a tone of melancholy in his voice, slight betrayal. But he was there, answering my call like he promised he would.

“I hope it’s not a bad time.” It was one thirty in the morning, so it was a stupid thing to say. If he wasn’t asleep, he was working. Or worse, he had company over. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had replaced my spot in the bed. My ex-husband was the sexiest man in the world. With beautiful brown eyes and the body of a Roman soldier, he was the sort of man any woman would give up anything to be with. The thought of someone else made me weak, so I tried not to think about it.

“No.” He never talked much, even during our happier times, but he was speaking even less than normal. The old camaraderie was absent. He almost felt like a stranger now. That was probably because he was. We hadn’t spoken in weeks. His feelings, his opinions were totally foreign to me. “Are you okay?”

I missed hearing that question. When I was his wife, I was the center of his whole world. My well-being was the only thing that mattered. But now I wasn’t his responsibility anymore, and that made me feel so distant from him. “I’m fine. Andrew is kicking a lot, and I can’t sleep.” My hand moved over my stomach as I lay under the warm blankets. I was on the top floor, and my mother was on the second floor. “He’s been really ornery for the last couple of days. I’ve been eating a lot of spicy food, but I think that’s just a coincidence.”

He didn’t release a chuckle or give any indication he’d heard what I said.

“I have a doctor’s appointment in a couple days…if you want to come.”

He sighed loudly over the phone. “Of course I do. I’ll be there.”

I wanted to stay on the phone with him forever, but there was nothing to say. I couldn’t even ask him about work because that would mean I would be asking him about Maddox. I couldn’t ask about Damien because they weren’t friends anymore. I couldn’t ask about anything…

But I continued to sit there because it was better than nothing.

“Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah. Just busy with work and my mother.”

“That’s one thing I don’t miss…”

A small smile came over my face. But then I wondered if he missed me. He never told me he loved me anymore or stopped by for a random visit. When we’d decided to end things, he seemed like he wanted it more than I did. It was crazy to think we’d been so in love just months ago, and now we were so far apart. The only thing keeping us together was the baby we made.

It made me hate Maddox even more.

Hades’s deep voice made the phone vibrate. “I’ll let you get some sleep.”

Disappointment deflated my lungs like popped balloons. I wasn’t sure what I expected him to say. We had nothing to talk about other than how miserable we were. I didn’t want to hear about his personal life, and I didn’t have a personal life at all. We could talk about our son, but since he hadn’t been born yet, there wasn’t much to say. “Goodnight…”

“Goodnight.”

3

Hades

I approached the table in the strip club. Music played overhead, and there were girls everywhere.

When Maddox saw me coming toward him, he dismissed one of his men. “Get the fuck up. My boy is here.” Once his guy was gone, he kicked out the chair so I could sit. He had girls on either side of him, but neither one of them actually touched him. What was more perplexing was the fact that he wasn’t facing the stage. Sometimes it seemed like he forced his sexuality when he really didn’t possess one. He wasn’t that interested in women, but he wasn’t interested in men either. He was just interested in power, making people do things that he wanted…preferably against their will.

I sank into the chair and felt the usual wave of nausea drown me. Maybe he only wanted me because I seemed unobtainable for so long. I was a prize he got to put on display, a captive that showed his strength. Maybe that was all I was to him…a trophy. He was already filthy rich, he was already powerful, so what made him tick? What did he want? I honestly had no idea.