Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
"Betsy—-"
"I'm s-sorry," she said brokenly. "I'm just...I d-don't know w-what to think. And I c-can't seem to s-stop crying."
Every word she choked out slashed at him, and when he saw his wife fall to her knees as she broke down in sobs—-
It was over.
And he, too, slowly fell to his knees.
If he truly loved her, he had to stop hurting her.
Betsy couldn't remember hurting this much in all of her life. She wasn't angry, not even with Charlotte, whose contracts had explicitly stated that the other woman had the right to withhold certain information as she saw fit.
But Charlotte was Charlotte, and she knew the other woman meant well.
Her husband, though...
It just hurt, to know that he had first wanted someone else. It tempted her to wallow in self-pity and lash out in her desire to hurt him back. But even with all of these emotions destroying her from within, none of it was enough to make Betsy blind to her husband's own pain.
He looked as if he had lost everything that mattered, and he was looking at her as if she was already dead.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked jerkily.
"It doesn't matter."
But the way he said it made her realize that it did matter.
"Tell me," she heard herself say. "Please."
A part of him wanted to say 'no'. What good would it do to say anything at this point? But because he loved her, and he knew he had hurt her too damn much to deny her anything—-
"It's because I know," Lukas said hollowly.
"Know w-what?"
"That this is likely the last time I'll be looking at you as my wife."
Betsy could barely breathe upon hearing her husband's words.
God.
God.
Oh God.
"You think I'm going to leave you," she whispered.
"How could you not?"
Oh, this man.
It killed her to hear the way agony had ravaged his voice, and even though she, too, had pieces of her heart that had yet to heal, how could he think that this was it for them?
"You wanted to marry Charlotte to protect your pride," Betsy pointed out shakily. "But you chose to marry me even if it would cost you your pride...and it did. The secret you wanted to keep...the whole world knows about it now, but you didn't c-care. All you cared about was h-how I felt. So y-you tell me, husband. How could I not stay knowing that?"
Lukas could only stare at his wife. Was she saying what he thought she was saying? Was she truly willing to give him another chance?
"And when I think about everything that's happened and everything you did," Betsy continued in a voice that still trembled with pain, "I can't believe I've been so stupid and blind that it's taken me this long to hear what you've been saying all this time without the—-"
Lukas hauled his wife into his arms, and this time she molded her body against his like they were two pieces that were meant to be one.
"I'll give you the words now if you still want it," Lukas said in a voice that was not quite steady.
A teary laugh slipped past her lips. "I will always want it."
"Then I'll say it all the time," Lukas vowed. "I love you, Betsy. I love you. And I will love you and our son until the day I die."
Epilogue
BETSY SETTLED INTO the armchair by the fireplace of their hotel suite before carefully peeling the wax seal off her husband's letter.
To my beautiful wife:
I was told that writing a letter is a must for every man who has found their heart's match, and it is a tradition I find myself surprisingly keen to keep.
Oh, this man.
Who knew her Lukas could be so wonderfully eloquent in his writing? Even though they had now been married for over a year, she could still count on one hand the number of times he had texted her anything other than 'yes' or 'no'.
Another thing I was told was how everything I knew would change once I found the one. And for a time, I did think Kyr was right. Everything did change because of you.
But now I realize he was only partially correct. It was true that everything did change for me, but only when I found not one but two.
And now he was making her cry—-
Because it's you and David that changed everything. It's the two of you that made me who I am. It's the two of you who showed me what it means to pray. And believe. And so my promise to both of you, I will never break. I will love you and our son until the day I die.
—-not just because he had written the sweetest thing ever, but also because when Lukas had told her he was writing her a letter, she had assumed it would be his way of pranking her again.