this. But the problem is... If I accept what you’re offering now, then I’m going to be robbing us both, robbing our child. Of the life we can have, of the home we can have. Of everything we can build together.”
“I gave you a house,” he said. “I gave you vows. What more do you want from me?”
“Only everything,” she said quietly. “Just everything that you are, everything that you ever will be. Your entire heart. That’s all. And I’ll give the same back, but you have to be willing to give to me. And if you can’t, then... We’ll share custody of the baby. I would never take this child from you.” She paused, considering. “And you know what, if at this point you can’t believe that I will keep my word about custody, then we really shouldn’t be together.”
“Wren,” he growled.
He reached out and grabbed hold of her arm, pulled her to him, pressing her naked body against his. And then he kissed her. Deep and wild and hard.
But with fury.
Not love.
And she so desperately wanted his love.
Because she had come through the clearing, come through the fire, come through the storm. And she was willing to stand through it, whatever the risk.
And because she’d found a way to be brave and honest, she wanted him to do the same.
Because she loved him more than she had ever thought she hated him, and she desperately needed to know that he loved her, too.
She pulled away from him, even though it hurt. Pulled away from him, even though it felt like dying.
It would be easier to stay. Whether he ever said he loved her or not. It would be easier to just stay. But then he would still be in hiding.
And she would be out in the storm alone.
And he would never know...
He would never find this freedom that she’d found. The sharp, painful, beautiful freedom that made her all she was.
Love meant demanding more from him.
Love meant she had to push them both to be the best they could be. She could not allow him to hide, not allow him to remain damaged but protected.
She wanted him to feel whole in the same way that she felt now. Glued back together, those cracks glowing bright because they were pressed together by love.
“I need you to love me,” she said. “I need you to find a way. And if it takes years, I’ll still be here waiting for you. But I won’t live halfway. I won’t live in a house with you without love. I won’t share your bed without love. I won’t take your name without love.”
“You’re ruining us,” he ground out. “Over nothing.”
“No, over everything. And as long as you think it’s nothing, that difference is not something we can ignore.”
Her dreams started to crack in front of her like a sheet of ice. Dreams of a shared life. A shared Christmas. Those Christmases she thought they might have here in this house, starting with this one.
But it was gone now.
Hope.
She whispered that word to herself.
Just keep your hope.
Wren collected her clothes and dressed slowly.
“Your car isn’t even here,” he said.
“No,” she said. “I know. But my sister will come and get me.” She stopped. “If you can’t fight me now as hard as you did over the winery business, then... I don’t know, Creed. I just don’t know.”
She went outside then. And it wasn’t Emerson who ultimately came to get her, but Cricket.
“What happened?” Cricket asked.
“Oh, my heart is only broken,” Wren said, pressing her face against the glass in the car.
“Why did you marry a man you hate?”
“Because I never really hated him. I was just afraid of loving him.” She sighed heavily. “Because loving him hurts. Really badly.”
“That’s stupid,” Cricket said. “Love isn’t supposed to feel like that. It’s not supposed to be that close to...this. All these bad feelings.”
“The problem is,” Wren said slowly, “when someone has been hurt, it’s not that simple. And he’s been hurt really badly.”
“Well, now he’s passed it on to you. And I don’t think I can forgive him for that.”
“I can,” Wren said. “If he wants me to.”
Cricket scoffed. “Why would you?”
“Because some people are like Dad,” Wren said. “They’re toxic. They don’t love people because they are too busy loving themselves. But some people are wounded. Creed is wounded. What he has to decide is if he wants to stay that way. Or if he’s going to let himself be whole.”
“It all sounds overrated to me.”
Wren