Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 31414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 157(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 157(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
The pain on her face made Guy want to put his fist through the window.
"That was the plan...until you told me you were a virgin. And that was when I...I thought I still had a chance. I wanted to believe that I could make you choose me—"
“I did choose you,” Jilly said brokenly.
"That's what I wanted to believe," Guy said rawly. "What I did believe...until his text this morning. And that's why I hired one of our actresses—"
Jilly's body involuntarily jerked, her heart recoiling as she was forced to remember—
Another woman's heels. The shower in the background. The scrap of black lace.
"It's all made up," Guy said tautly, "and I...I can prove it to you. The trailer, I have a surveillance camera, and—"
"Did you tell her to mistake me for your older sister?"
Guy whitened.
And it was all she needed to see.
"Jillian—"
"You r-really wanted to d-destroy me that much?"
"Forgive me." He tried to reach for her hands, but stopped when she reared back like his touch would burn her alive. "Jillian, please..."
But all she could do was look at him and cry.
"You c-could've just asked me," Jilly choked out.
"I'm sorry," Guy said desperately. "I'm so damn sorry—"
But even without his wife saying a word, he could already feel her drifting farther and farther away from him.
"I love you, Jillian. I—just please tell me what I can do."
God, help me.
It was his first time to pray, and the words came instinctively, desperately, like a drowning man grasping for air.
“Give me another chance,” he said hoarsely. “I love you—”
God please.
It was all he could do, all he could think of that could save him from losing her.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out, and his heart stopped. “I’m just so, so sorry...”
Chapter Sixteen
Star: What's going on? Jack actually sounded worried when he told me to check on you.
GUY STOOD MOTIONLESS outside the glass doors of their ranch house, the Texas heat pressing against his skin like a suffocating blanket, sweat beading along his collar despite the evening hour.
Thirty minutes had passed since he’d parked his car in the circular gravel driveway, thirty minutes of standing here like a coward while his wife was inside, probably packing her life away from him piece by piece.
Guy tried but failed to make himself breathe properly, each attempt at drawing air feeling like drowning in reverse, his lungs forgetting their basic function as his mind kept replaying the devastation on her face when she’d realized the truth.
All he could see was the look on his wife's face...upon learning how he had planned to hurt her.
Shame her.
Destroy her.
Guy pounded his chest, but it did no good.
His heart was dead.
I'm sorry.
So, so sorry.
His wife's words echoed in his memory like shards of glass that scraped the walls of his brain...while stabbing his chest over and over.
Guy forced himself to move after some time, his only motivation, to make it up to his wife...no matter the cost.
He steeled himself to face the consequences of his stupidity, his hands trembling when he reached for the handle.
But the moment he found his wife in the glass-walled aviary, the sound of her heartbroken sobs hit him like a physical blow.
She was crying so hard that her whole body shook with the force of it, her movements clumsy and desperate while she struggled to fit all of the birds’ essentials into a large zippered tote, her tears making everything blurry when she fumbled with water dispensers and packages of specialized seed.
Apple squawked in distress from his perch, sensing her emotional turmoil, while Manny and Maiden huddled together on their favorite branch, their usual cheerful chatter replaced by worried silence.
“Please stay.”
The words came out hoarse and raw, torn from somewhere deep in his throat, and her head jerked up at the sound, her lovely face still ravaged by tears.
“You know I love them, too,” Guy said jerkily, his voice cracking on the words when he looked toward the birds who had become such an unexpected part of his world. “Right?”
His wife slowly nodded...even as she slowly wrapped her arms around her body as if prepared to ward off another killing blow.
From him.
The realization that she was literally bracing herself against him, against the man who was supposed to protect her, sent fear gnawing at his bones, but Guy reminded himself doggedly that he owed it to his innocent wife to finish what he had to say, no matter how much it destroyed him to see that defensive posture.
“We both know it’s not fair for them to suffer another move,” he managed to grit out. "Right?"
"R-Right."
It hurt to see how just that one word seemed to cost her everything, and Guy had to clench his hands against the urge to reach for her.
“But I can’t...” she started, then stopped, her voice breaking completely.
“I’m not asking you to.”
Guy's heart started bleeding at what he was about to say.