and I don’t want to stay here anymore. It’s just not me.”
It’s not true. I beg him to see through my lies.
Hurt flashes over his face, so real that I feel it in my chest like a pulsing wound. “Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve been here for weeks as my wife. If you hated it, why the fuck didn’t you say something?”
“I—I wanted to believe in it, but I can’t handle a life like this. I just want to get back to my life in the city.”
“With Cranbury,” he says heatedly.
Make him hate you. “Yes. He’ll be able to take care of us.”
A humorless smile staggers over his face. “This doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
“You think I’m lying?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“I don’t like it here. I’m losing my mind with boredom and it’s only been a few weeks. You’re a nice guy, but you can’t give me what I want.”
Every word that comes out of my mouth seems to cause him physical pain, and then his expression shifts into blackened hatred.
Gage takes a giant step toward me, and I back into the chest of drawers. Tears slide down my face as he looks at me as though I’m scum. Like I don’t deserve to be in the same room with him, and maybe I don’t. Another second, and I’ll lose whatever self-control I’m clinging onto to throw myself into his arms.
“Don’t you dare tell me that I can’t provide. I’ve been doing pretty damn well for myself. You’re the one who can’t handle life without twenty-four hour delivery, wine bars, craft beer, or whatever the fuck’s in that city. Don’t you dare tell me this is my fault.”
“You’re right. It’s my fault.”
Pity splinters the ice in his gaze. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
Don’t fucking cry.
I say nothing even though his heat burns through my clothes and strokes my skin. Every instinct screams for me to run into his arms, but I stamp them down. Because we can’t be together. I step around him, inhaling a deep breath and keeping it in. He lets me go. It’s painful, like a ball that keeps growing in my throat, and I don’t burst into sobs until I’m outside with the door shut behind me.
Twelve
Olivia
Evelyn dominates the board. Everything from Mayfair to King’s Cross Station is covered with tiny purple mansions. All I have is Leicester Square and Bow Street, and Mark is currently pouting that his mother is kicking his ass at Monopoly. I’ve been playing for two hours.
This is my personal hell.
I honestly would rather be treated to two hours of Mark gloating how he’d outsmarted me. I would submit to a paternity test over and over than be forced to sit here with his mother, who keeps dropping not-so-subtle hints about my lack of etiquette, while playing this stupid game. Every so often, she looks up from her spread of colored paper to give me a smug smile. That combined with the butler passing along Monopoly money from the bank to Mark whenever he snaps his fingers under the table, makes me want to throw my head back and scream.
“It’s your turn. Jesus, Olivia. Pay attention.”
I sit into the chair. “I forfeit.”
He slams his fists into the table. Several of Evelyn’s houses fall over.
She scowls at her son. “Mark, there’s no need to be so violent.”
“No, damn it. You can’t forfeit. I asked you to sit through one game. You can get through one game of Monopoly for me.”
Why the fuck should I do anything for you? “It’s taking too long, and you’re the only one who likes this.”
Evelyn shrugs, sipping her glass of Prosecco. “It’s not too bad.”
I’m in a house of lunatics.
He shoves the board back. “What else am I supposed to do in this wretched place? It’s so boring here.”
I never thought this place to be anything but spectacular in its beauty. The slow pace was a welcome reprieve to the crazy, fast-paced life in San Francisco. I felt suffocated there, and here I could finally breathe. “Go outside,” I seethe. “Take a walk. Enjoy nature. Do something that doesn’t involve bitching.”
“I might put you on a long leash, but don’t you dare take that tone with my son—”
He holds up a hand silencing her. “I can handle myself, Mother.”
“Is that why you’ve been cheating at Monopoly this whole time?”
His face goes beet-red. “Fucking traitor.”
A frustrated sigh escapes Evelyn’s lips as she sets her glass down, rolling her eyes at us.