Titus: Book Two of the Cantrell Brothers Series

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Titus fisted shaking hands at his sides, trying his hardest to control himself. Blood pumped a raging path through his body, most of it focusing at the junction of his neck and collarbone where he could feel the pounding. It made his head swim and his vision go red as he thought about forcing sense into the woman before him.

How she could ever think that he'd cheat on her was something else. He simply couldn't wrap his mind around it. After ten years of protecting, waiting for, and flat out loving her, Titus couldn't believe that this was how she saw him. He'd done too much for far too long to have all of it go down the drain because of one misunderstanding; Anna was supposed to know that. Titus couldn't handle that she didn't.

“Will you just tell me what's wrong?” he asked as gently as possible.

Lowering her head, she cowered back in her chair, her gaze fixated at something on her lap. “I already did, and if you can't fess up to-”

“Sleeping around on you – the woman I've fucking been in love with for a decade!”

Tears trailed down her cheeks. “Ten years doesn't matter. It only takes a few minutes for you to get in between some girl's legs. That's what you used to do back when we were growin' up, wasn't it? Sleep with anything that could breathe?”

“I'm not-”

“What was it you said before?” she continued on as if he weren't even in the room. “A teenage boy who'd fuck a tree if he could?”

“I am nothing like that anymore,” he spat out, not able to keep the pent up frustration from his voice. “You, of all people, should know that!”

“I guess I should, shouldn't I?” Anna said, her voice deathly cold, despite the moisture wetting her face.

“Why can't you just believe me? Why can't you just trust me?”

Her face remained that impassive, lifeless mask that was nothing like his Anna. Usually warm and laughing eyes were now cold. What was almost always a toothy grin was now a frown that made her look ten years older, the bags under her eyes acting as only another addition. All of it – the physical signs, her monotonous voice – told him that she expected him to admit some illicit affair that would never, ever happen.

“I thought I did,” she whispered.

He ran an agitated hand through his hair, pulling on the short strands with a harsh grasp. “Jesus Christ, Anna! Why are you so-”

“Why am I so what? What am I, Titus? Please, tell me! Am I a liar? A cheat, maybe? You think I would do something as disgusting as that?” she asked, the volume adding strength and life to her voice.

Ella wailed in the background, only adding to his irritation. He wanted to hold his little girl, calm her, and soothe her cries away, but he couldn't. His heart felt like it was breaking, but all he could do was hope that Ella would quiet down by herself. With how hard his entire body was shaking right now and the pounding ache beginning at the back of his head, he wasn't fit to hold onto their baby girl.

“Why do you think I cheated on you?” he almost screamed, fingers digging in at the base of his skull.

“What else am I supposed to think!?”

“You're supposed to know that I would never do something like that! You're supposed to trust me! That is what you're supposed to think.”

Tears leaked from her eyes just as she shoved past him. “How am I supposed to trust somebody who lied to me over and over again?” she said, more to their crying baby than to him.