My Composure After Divorce Became His Greatest Torment Chapter 20
I looked at him, the absurdity of it all hitting me.
“So Caroline’s peace of mind, and her parents’, had to be purchased with my body, my child, and my marriage. Is that it?”
Nathan flinched as if I’d struck him.
“It’s not that you couldn’t refuse her. It’s that you decided I was the easier one to sacrifice.”
Calmly, I stripped away the last of his defenses.
“Because my family isn’t powerful. Because I have no one who can stand up to the Prescotts. So my feelings, my dignity, my body—it was all yours to arrange.”
Nathan’s face went white.
“Yes,” he said, the word choked with effort. “I was arrogant. And selfish. I loved you, but I could never get over the fact that you weren’t from my world. After we were married, I never truly respected you. I always put my family’s needs before yours.”
His eyes were red-rimmed, his voice cracking.
“Elise, can you give me one more chance? This time, I’ll learn how to love you properly.”
I looked at the broken man in front of me and remembered the woman I had once been—desperately learning table manners, desperately trying to win his family’s approval.
That last, lingering trace of grief finally dissolved.
“But I don’t need that anymore.”
I smiled.
This time, the smile was real.
“Because I’m happy now.”