Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,46

away.

Relieved, Kenzie shifted her attention to her Uncle Shane and Aunt Caylee to find them smiling as they watched their son Devin, who couldn’t seem to stop glaring at the woman that he’d been going out of his way to avoid since they arrived a few hours ago. She really didn’t understand the men in her family sometimes, Kenzie thought as she looked away from Charlie, who was reading to the twins to glance back at her cousin and-

Found herself wondering why the bastard that ruined her life was here.

“I was hoping that I’d find you here,” Roger said, sighing heavily as he sat down next to her.

“Did you sign the divorce papers?” Kenzie asked, because that was the only thing she cared about.

“We’re not getting a divorce,” he said, shaking his head absently as he took in every Bradford in the room who had stopped what they were doing to glare at him.

“Yes, we are,” she bit out, because there was no way in hell that she was going to waste one more year of her life on the man that had nearly destroyed her.

Nodding, Roger absently began to toy with something on his left hand, drawing her attention and-

She felt her stomach drop when she spotted the black wedding band that she’d given him on their wedding day back on his finger. For several minutes, all she could do was sit there, watching as he slowly turned the ring around his finger, something that she used to find endearing. Now all it did was turn her stomach.

Once upon a time, they’d been happy. Truly, unbelievably happy, but that was another lifetime where everything was perfect, she was young, in love, and married to the man of her dreams with a baby on the way. They’d never planned on starting a family that soon, but when she found out that she was pregnant, oh, god, she’d never seen Roger happier. He’d just glowed. There was no other way to describe it.

He wanted to quit medical school and go work for her Uncle Jared, but she wouldn’t let him. He’d worked too hard to get where he was, so they’d compromised. They were going to finally break the news to her family that they were married and move back to Massachusetts so that she wasn’t alone when Roger was stuck in class or work, but…

Life didn’t work out that way.

She still didn’t remember the accident, but that probably was for the best. But she would never forget the look on his face when the doctor told him that she’d lost the baby. He’d shut down on her while her grief had swallowed her whole.

When her family came to get her from the hospital, Roger hadn’t said a word. He’d simply stood there, looking out the window while her father thanked him for looking after her, while she’d laid there, silently pleading with him to say something.

But he didn’t say anything.

Not when they helped her into the wheelchair that was going to take her away and not when she’d said his name. He just stood there. As they rolled her out of the hospital, she’d told herself that he just needed time, just needed to figure this out and that everything was going to be okay, but it wasn’t.

Nothing was okay after that.

She had so many chances to tell her family about the baby and every time that she tried, her grief would swallow her whole. As far as her family knew, she was just depressed because the accident had forced her to drop out of school. They’d told her that everything was going to be okay, but she knew that it wouldn’t.

For the first few months, she’d waited for him, waited for him to come for her, call her, something, but he never did. While he’d buried himself in his studies, switching from plastic surgery to pediatrics and OBGYN, determined to make sure that this never happened to another parent, she’d been mourning the loss of their child alone.

She’d never had the chance to hold Brandon, never got a chance to tell him that she loved him, and she never had the chance to say goodbye and that…

She was never going to be able to get over that.

Forcing herself to go on without her baby or Roger by her side was the hardest thing that she ever had to do. She never wanted to go through that much pain again and she sure as hell didn’t want to be reminded