We may not have had sex, but Max held me all night.
“Max,” I whispered.
“Yeah, babe,” he murmured sleepily.
“I still need to tell you the rest of the story. I’m just so afraid of how you’ll react, that you may think less of me, that maybe you don’t want to be with me anymore. Oh, God!” I covered my face with my hands and sobbed for several moments before I continued. “I thought if I didn’t tell you that I…I…I knew…I couldn’t…I couldn’t…”
“Shh…Jada, you’re not making any sense. It’s okay, shh.” Max hugged me and rubbed my back, now fully awake. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at him, but I still didn’t speak. This was so hard. He took my face into his hands and said, “Princess, I care about you. There is nothing you can tell me that will change that, Jada. Nothing, none of this was your fault.”
My anxiety was taking over; I couldn’t control it. I was failing. “No, it is my fault, Max. He was jealous.”
“Who was jealous, Turner?” he asked, sitting up straighter. “Of what? The vineyard? The winery?”
“No. He was jealous of you.”
“Why would Turner be jealous of me? I don’t understand.” Max asked, looking confused, almost like I wasn’t making any sense. .
“Yes, he wanted the winery, but he said he wanted me more.”
“That prick, but I still don’t get it, babe. If he was jealous, then…”
“He knew how I felt about you, Max!” I cried out. “After a few days in hospital, I regained consciousness and the doctors told me I may never be able to conceive, to have children, due to the internal damage caused that night.”
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I’m going to fucking kill that piece of shit. I swear Tate Turner is a dead man.” Max jumped.
“That’s why we can’t be together, Max. I can’t give you what you want, what you need. You need children to carry on the Brunetti name. It’s what you want; I know it is.”
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Jesus, stay strong, Jada. Breathe.
Max stared at me and said nothing.
I had my answer.
“I’m sorry. I’m damaged. I can’t do it to you. I just can’t.”
I turned, started to get dressed, and I walked out of the bedroom.
Walked out on the only man I ever loved.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MAX
What the fuck just happened? Why didn’t I answer her? Why am I sitting here like the biggest fucking dickhead ever? I love that fucking woman, and I let her walk out of here, out of my life. I must be insane!
She thinks I don’t want her because I became a fucking mute when she told me she can’t have kids. I quickly got up and ran downstairs buck naked, calling after her. Fuck, she’d left. Where the hell does she think she’s going at this time of night? She wasn’t even wearing any fucking clothes!
I had to find her.
“Goddamn it, Jada, why the fuck did you leave and where the fuck did you go?” I yelled.
I needed to calm the hell down. There were only two places for her to go: her parents’ house or with Mia. I tried calling her, but it went straight to her voicemail. I left a message. I waited and I called again. Nothing. That’s it, I’m calling Mia; I don’t care how fucking late it is.
“Mia. It’s Max.”
“Why the heck are you calling me so late? You better have a really good reason, brother of mine; otherwise, I’m likely to—”
“Shut up and listen, Mia,” I curtly cut her off. “Jada is gone. She left in the middle of the night, and she’s not answering her phone. Is she with you?”
“No, shit, what happened?” Mia started to panic, I could tell; I felt it through the phone. “What did you say to her to make her leave, Max?”
“Nothing. That’s the whole problem. She told me everything, about Tate Turner, how he attacked her and how she can’t conceive.” I ran a hand down over my face in frustration.
“Oh, okay, so you had a fight about it?”
“No, we didn’t fight, for fuck’s sake. Fucking hell, Mia, I’m not that much of a bastard; I do have a heart, you know! I need to find her; please help me. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate.”
“And you are desperate because…?
“I need to tell her I love her,” I confessed. Finally, I admitted I loved her. The self-admission was not a shock to my system as I’d imagined; instead, it felt good. I suspected I loved Jada all along, but I had fought my feelings. I lied to myself, thinking it was just great sex and that all I wanted was the shares, but in reality, I wanted her. I loved her. Jada Sinclair was mine. She belongs to me.