The Price Of His Mistake Chapter 13
He took a cab. The security at the gate blocked him.
He stood outside. Begged for two hours. His voice went raw. Finally, the guards agreed to relay a message.
The heavy wrought-iron gates swung open.
I walked out. Ralph Lauren cashmere cardigan. One hand in my pocket. My expression utterly calm.
The moment Andrew saw me, he broke. Tears streaming.
He stumbled forward. He grabbed the iron bars of the gate.
“Catherine! Sweetheart! I was wrong… I know I was so wrong.” He was weeping. No dignity left. “Please. Forgive me. Okay? I’ll sign the agreement. The fund. The money. I don’t want any of it. I only want you.”
“Seven years. Seven years—can it really be wiped out by one stupid, terrible mistake?”
I stood inside the gate. I looked at him through the bars. I felt nothing.
“Andrew, love isn’t something you spend until it’s gone. When you used my hard work to impress her. When you screamed at me in front of the whole office to defend her. When you sat in that race car, your hands over hers… did you think about our seven years then?”
He shook his head wildly. Tears flew. “I’ll change. I swear. I’ll never look at another woman again. Please. Don’t throw me away…”
I stepped back. I made the distance wider.
“My love. You threw it on the ground yourself. Then you stomped on it. Now I don’t want it anymore.”
I turned to the estate manager. “Close the gate. Inform security. If he comes within half a step of this property again, call the police immediately. File charges for trespassing on private land.”
The iron gates closed. Slowly.
Andrew’s screams came through the bars. Desperate. “Catherine! Don’t go!”
The sound grew fainter. More distant.
No matter how he begged, the woman who once held him in the palm of her hand was gone. He had killed her with his own two hands.
He got to his feet. Like a walking corpse. He staggered away.