them souvenirs,” I say with a little smile. “Something to remember our time together?”
“Oh, so you do want to remember our time together,” he says, stepping closer. “I figured from the way you left without so much as a goodbye, that you were anxious to forget it.”
I flinch and want to close my eyes, but I force myself to meet his gaze. His eyes are accusatory, which I expected, but also a little bit wounded. Which I didn’t expect.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him plainly. “I really am. I know it was a kind of crappy way to go about things—”
“Kind of?” he breaks in. “Kind of? Charlotte, how do you think it felt that on the same day I find out I’m not getting deported, I come home to celebrate with my wife and get greeted by an empty house, and these?”
He holds up the folder in his hand, which I now know for sure contains our divorce papers. Fine. That’s just fine. Colin’s mad, and I get that, but now I’m mad too. Yes, I left without saying goodbye, and that wasn’t well done of me, but I’m not exactly loving the way he seems to think that I should have just been waiting at home for him. For the first time, it hits me that Colin’s been a little selfish in all this—he doesn’t get to have the wife and the fiancée.
I poke a finger to his chest. “You wanted to come home and celebrate with your wife? Don’t say it like that. Don’t say it like the love of your life walked out your front door with your heart in her back pocket. I’m happy you’re not getting deported, truly, but you should have wanted to celebrate with the woman you were going to marry, not the one you were going to divorce. What was the plan, you were going to come have a pre-dinner glass of celebratory Champagne with me before going off to dinner and more bubbly with Rebecca? Did it ever occur to you that it got old, Colin?” That it hurt?
Instead of apologizing or backing down, he only looks angrier. “It got so old that you deliberately broke the prenup? You were so desperate to get away from me that you couldn’t have survived two more weeks?”
“Not you!” I shout. “I wasn’t trying to get away from you, I was trying to get away from you and her!”
His eyes take on a steely gleam as he steps even closer. “Why’s that?”
Realizing what I’ve just admitted, I tear my gaze away from his and try to move around him to escape his nearness, but Colin isn’t having it and moves with me, blocking my escape route.
“Move.”
“Why, so you can run away again?”
“I wasn’t running away.” I still don’t meet his eyes.
“Bullshit.” His voice is quiet but commanding. “Why’d you run?”
I keep my head stubbornly turned and remain silent.
“What happened that day in Gordon Price’s office?” he asks. “I deserve to know that much, at least.”
“What did he tell you?” I ask, keeping my gaze fixed on the wall to my right.
“Not much. My meeting lasted about three minutes, most of which was spent with him glaring at me, and ended with him begrudgingly telling me that he was closing the investigation without formal charges.”
“Well then, see? All good.”
“No, damn it, Charlotte, not all good. Why did you do it? Why did you break the prenup? You actually think I’d want your money?”
“I never thought that,” I say, realizing he won’t relent until he gets his answers. “It wasn’t about the money. But it had to end. You’ve got to see that. We couldn’t keep doing what we were doing—married, but not really. I couldn’t …”
Remembering my mom’s reminder that running from my problems was no way to deal with them, I do the strong thing and lift my gaze to his.
“I filed for divorce because I want you to be happy, Colin. I wanted you to be free to marry someone you love, not be stuck in a technical marriage for one day longer than necessary. But I also did it for me. I couldn’t keep living with you, pretending to be your wife, when I knew you were counting the days to marry someone else. I thought I could survive it, but seeing that engagement ring on Rebecca’s finger, it all became too real, and—”
“I never bought her a ring.”
I blink rapidly through my tears, trying to comprehend this. “What? But I saw