The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,69

wasn’t my home at all. I couldn’t stay there another night. “I should go.”

Dax didn’t fight for me, either because he didn’t want to or because it wouldn’t make a difference. He backed away and gave me space.

Charlie and everyone else got up from the floor. They came toward me so they could walk me out. Charlie hit the button for the elevator; Kat placed her hand on my arm.

Like it was too hard to watch me, Dax turned around completely and left the living room. He moved the dining table with a view of the city and took a seat. His shoulders sank with weakness. His eyes stared out the window and never looked back at me.

I’d forgotten about the ring on my left hand because it had felt right from the moment I put it on, like it was a part of my skin at this point. But I pulled it off my left hand and set it on the coffee table next to the game board and bowl of chips.

I turned away and stepped into the elevator with my friends. I stood in the middle and faced Dax, looking at him for the last time.

Charlie placed his hand on my arm, telling me he was there.

The doors closed.

And that was it.

We were over.

24

Carson

My bedroom furniture was still in the apartment, so I went to sleep like nothing had changed.

Charlie sat with me for a while at the end of the bed, but he didn’t try to engage in a lengthy conversation, knowing I just wanted to lie there in silence.

When he left and turned off the light, I went straight to sleep.

Like I had no energy.

When I woke up the next day, I moved like a zombie. I threw my clothes in the dryer to de-wrinkle them and put them back on so I could wear them to the office.

If anyone noticed I was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, they probably wouldn’t say anything.

And if they did, I’d tell them to fuck off.

I made myself a mug of coffee at the kitchen counter and took a drink, my eyes still puffy from crying the night before.

Charlie made scrambled eggs on the stove and dished them onto a plate before he handed it to me.

“I’m not hungry.”

Charlie turned off the stove and made a plate for himself. “You’re still going to the office today?”

“Yeah.” I stared out the window over the sink and looked at the city outside.

“You have a lot of sick days built up. You don’t want to use one?”

“No.”

He pulled out a fork from the drawer and dug it into his eggs so he could take a bite.

“Is it okay if I move back in?”

His chewing slowed, and he looked at me incredulously, like it was a stupid question. “Always.”

I took another drink from my mug and then poured it into the sink because I had to get going.

“But are you sure about this?”

I nodded. “If a relationship is hard now, it won’t get easier. I’ve been divorced once. I’m not going to do it again.”

Charlie continued to stare at me, not giving his two cents on the matter. “All right.”

“Relationships aren’t always easy. Sometimes they take hard work. It’s not always butterflies in your stomach kind of happiness. But I feel like Dax and I have been overrun with problems since the moment we met, and all those problems come from his billionaire status. Money makes things complicated. I just don’t need anything more complicated in my life.”

He nodded.

“Instead of just being in love, we’ll always be dictated by his money. He had no idea how shitty it felt to walk into his conference room and have those suits staring at me like I was the enemy.”

“Yeah. It was pretty shitty.”

“I thought it would just be Dax and a lawyer, and we would just go over the paperwork. Casual. Transparent. But I walked in there, and it was really clear I wasn’t entitled to information about my own marriage. I was in no place to negotiate, and they knew that. So, it was either sign it…or we don’t trust you. It is not a good way to start a marriage.”

He agreed. “No, it’s not.” He set his plate and fork down like he’d lost his appetite because of our conversation. “I think Dax is a good guy, and he has nothing but good intentions. But when you marry somebody, you don’t just marry them but everything they’re associated with. So that’s the kind