“I’m apathetic, Lily. It’s not every day I hear the woman I chose to be my wife, the woman who was going to be beside me, standing next to me until I was dead and blue, has actually weighed her options as to how to end her marriage with me. So, seriously, Lily, what more is there to say?”
Let’s talk? Let’s take a seat and discuss things rationally? Or, how about, we had loved each other once, so maybe we still do, but we need to work hard to get to where we were before? Or maybe I desperately wanted him to own up to it, to choose us like I had always done. It was always him and no one else. Why can’t I be his priority?
Because I wasn’t enough. I wasn’t in denial to the fact that I wasn’t a raving, drop-dead, gorgeous beauty that all men fawned over. Sure, I was pretty, but a knockout? Hardly. As a result, maybe it was just as well. Maybe he should flock to the people who were as beautiful as he was. Besides, my ego and insecurities could only take so many blows until I eventually lost it.
“You’re right…” I shrugged, half wanting to slap him with force and the other half wanting to cry my eyes out while my fists smashed his chest due to frustration. “Will that be all, Drake?” I arched my brow at him, feeling frail and brave at the same time. “‘Cause if it is, I need you to leave so I can change, please.”
He didn’t move nor appeared as if he had heard me speak at all. “Did you marry me only to try for another baby?” he croaked, his eyes harsh and brutally unforgiving.
Shocked, confused, and hurt from his crucial accusatory tone, I frowned at him. “What makes you think that?”
He shrugged. “The moment you found out you are pregnant, you fully neglected me—in every sense of the word. And, after tonight, I saw the magnitude of how much or little I meant to you.”
“That’s not true,” I vehemently denied. “This all started because of you and your secrets! So don’t put this on me just because you need something to pinpoint and blame for the demise of our relationship.”
He studied me awhile, his eyes flickering all over my face. “Before tonight, I had no idea how cruel you could be. Though I should’ve paid attention to this side of you when you shut me out the first time you were pregnant, when I had to keep begging for you to give me a chance. If you take pleasure in punishing me, maybe I should just portray what you accuse me of. That way, I wouldn’t have to feel guilty at all.”
Was he threatening me? How fucking dare he? First, he accused me of using him to have a baby. Secondly, he was pushing his luck with trying to do this idiotic blame game that was solely on him. Minutes ago, I had never felt more fragile in my life, but after hearing him spout some hateful things, I was ready to duke it out.
“If you want to fuck other women, go ahead, Drake. I won’t stop you,” I dared, past caring about the consequences. I was too focused on the loathing that emanated from him.
“Be careful what you wish for, Lily…”
Bastard! Fuming, I threw him my middle finger before brushing past him, bellowing, “Go to hell, Drake!”
“The pleasure will be all mine, wife.”
Son of a mother fucking shithead, I thought as I growled as hard as I could, wanting to hurl something at him so he could experience some of the pain he was giving me.
Good riddance. I won’t have a headache for a husband.
Chapter 19
Lily
“How was your sleep, dear?” Patricia lightly inquired over breakfast the next day.
“I slept pretty good,” I murmured before I took a careful sip of my peppermint tea. It was one of the things that helped pacify my odd tummy. It was a recurring side effect of being pregnant, and though I loved almost all aspects of pregnancy, suffice it to say, this nausea and the acid reflux I could live without. “Actually, do you know where your son might be? I woke up without him next to me…”
Patricia gave my hand a light squeeze before giving me an encouraging smile. “He left on the first flight back to LA. He said something important needed his attention. I begged for him not to go, but I had never seen my son look so desperate to be out of here. I almost felt sorry for him.
“Whatever it is you two are going through, always remember this will pass and another problem will come. Don’t let the small details mar the love you have for each other. Try to settle differences as quickly as possible before it stretches into something bigger. My son may be many things, but I know his heart, Lily. That boy is very much in love with you.”
No, the man I saw last night was a man who was scorned, bitter, and insufferable. Patricia was right in that Drake was so many things, but in love with me, he was surely not.