Kate had done just fine raising her three children, alone, after the sudden disappearance of her husband eight years ago. Now he's back, claiming he can't remember the past eight years.
Join Kate is she balances the fine line of saving her heart fr...
I can almost physically feel the tension in the silent car.
Michael hasn't said a word since I mentioned the divorce papers, his irritation rolls off his stiff shoulders in waves.
He was never an angry person
Frustrated tears start to fill my eyes and I attempt to blink them away. Everything about this situation is a nightmare.
"So you like blonde men, now?" Michael decides to speak, his spiteful tone not going unnoticed.
Following my initial reaction, I jerk the car off the road, leading to multiple others holding down their horns. A work truck goes so far as to flip me off and I respond with a wave.
"I like men that don't leave their wives and children, you asshole." I spit, angry tears spilling down you cheek. He winces in response to my sharp tone, his anger evaporating.
"I'm not trying to hurt you, Michael, that's not my intention, but I can't pretend that the last eight years didn't happen."
- Michael and I's coffee dates have become a daily occurrence since the new semester began. We have a table at the back corner of the shop where I study while he grades the history papers by his middle school students.
My eyes slowly leave my notes and drift to the man next to me. I wish a could read him, understand what he's thinking.
Over the past few months, I've learned more about him but not much. He was an only child, his parents tragically died in murder-suicide when he was fifteen, and he's been alone ever since. He was born and raised in New York, and he has no plans to leave.
"I was wondering if you had dinner plans?" He suddenly asks, looking up from the paper marked up with red, the tips of his ears turning pink.
"No." I feel my cheeks flush, as I close my medical-surgical textbook.
"Would you like to go to dinner with me?" He asks, setting the red pen down next to the pile of already graded papers. "Like as date, unless you don't want to, I would understand."
"Yes," I grin reaching for his hand. "I'd love to." We smile at each other before we go back to our work, but our hands remain entwined under the table.
- "Come on." I mutter, taking the keys from the SUV, and jogging up to the house. I'm the upstairs hallway, just outside my bed room. Grabbing the string that hangs from the ceiling, I pulling the hatch down, the ladder leading to the attic slowly unfolding.
"There's boxes of your stuff up here you can bring down if you need things." I tell him, starting to climb the ladder. Really, it's only his stuff that's up here, the things I saved in case our children wanted something of their father's when they were older.
A few boxes of clothes, pictures, and our wedding things. In the back corner I see the box of old paperwork and take the lid off. The divorce certificate and custody paperwork is on the top so I grab them, my hand then goes to reach for the manila envelope that holds the photos. It would be so easy to show him the photos and let him know that's exactly why nothing can ever happen between us. But, for some reason, my hand hovers. I don't know if it's shame, jealously, or plain vengeance, but I don't want him knowing about the other woman. I don't want him to know that after a few months of being in the new house, he found someone else. Before I can change my mind, I put the lid back on the box and turn to hand him the papers.
"This doesn't change anything." He tells me before he lifts a finger. Silently, I continue to hold them out until he takes them.
"You don't want to see the kids either, and signed your custody away." I haven't had any contact with you since the morning you left, our lawyers dealt with everything for us."
Misty-eyed, he looks up at me."
"Kate, I have been entranced by you from the time I saw you in that alley-way, and I have been in love with you since that moment I looked up from Shaun Grayson's failing paper and saw you so intensely focused on your textbook I felt like I could breathe for the first time." I gently gasp when he suddenly rips the divorce papers in half. "After my father killed my mother, I emotionally shut myself off promising to never feel a thing again and then I met you." The tears in his eyes cause mine to fall. I don't want to hate him, but every fiber of my being is screaming at me to remember the pain I felt when he left. I felt like I was dying. But when he cries, I'm transported back to all the other times I saw his tears. The day we married. When we were expecting for the first time. When we learned we were having twins. When the twins were finally born. "I love you." He tells me, his voice breaking. "I'm sorry you haven't heard me tell you that in a while, and I'm sorry that you had to spend eight years thinking I didn't." He doesn't try to touch me or even get any closer. He simply sits there the the shredded papers in his hand. I know that one point, he loved me with all of his heart, there's no denying it. But, eventually, he fell out of love. "I love you."
"Just because you rip it doesn't mean it not true anymore, it's a legal document."
"Then we'll remarry." He growls at me, ripping the divorce certificate in half again. "I will fight whoever I have to for us to be a family again, I've had to go the past three weeks without you, I won't survive much longer. So if I have to woo you right along with the blonde sheriff and the doctor, then so be it."
My response is cut off when the front door slams.
"Where the fuck is the ring?" Sam suddenly yells from down stairs, the ladder creaking a few times before Sam gets into the attic looking like he's going to kill someone.
Someone specifically being Michael.
*** I don't know how you guys feel, but the old Michael kinda seems cruel...
Look. One of my books was "Top Picks For You" 😂😂😂
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