The Wife He Couldn’t Bring Home Chapter 11
Cole’s face turned a shade paler. He looked past my mom’s shoulder and saw me, his eyes suddenly lighting up. “Maya! Listen to me—”
I didn’t want to listen.
I pulled the door wide open and stepped outside, standing on the steps and looking down at him.
“Cole, what do you want to say? That you regret it? That you love me?” I let out a laugh. The smile must have looked awful. “Did you think about loving me when you were sleeping with my best friend? Did you think about loving me when you kept her on the side, got her pregnant, and had our entire social circle hide it from me? Did you think about loving me when you pinned me to an operating table and had someone scrape my baby out while I was fully awake?”
Cole opened his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know you had already had the abortion… If I had known—”
“If you had known what? If you knew the baby was gone, you wouldn’t have forced that surgery on me?” I cut him off. “Cole, from beginning to end, the only person you ever cared about was yourself. You told me to behave, to endure it, to accept her—what gave you the right? Just because you claimed I was the one you loved most? The unluckiest thing that ever happened to me was marrying you, Cole.”
He stood at the bottom of the steps, looking at me without moving an inch, tears shimmering in his eyes.
I turned and walked back inside. His voice chased after me. “Maya, can we just start over? I don’t want anything else. I’ll handle things with Paige—”
“Cole,” I said without looking back. “I got my life back from you. Don’t even think about touching me again.”
I closed the door, leaned my back against the panel, and closed my eyes.
I didn’t know when, but Owen had walked up beside me. He didn’t speak. He just gently placed the bag of roasted chestnuts into my hands.
The chestnuts were still warm.Â