“And are you? Sure now?”
“Yes! God, yes. The moment it happened, I knew I’d made a terrible mistake.”
I laugh without humor. “How convenient that your certainty arrived after testing the waters.”
“Baby, please. I love you.”
“I’ve given you ten years of absolute fidelity and honesty. I deserved the same respect.”
The worst part is how much I still love her, even as anger and hurt burn through me. Even now, looking at her tear-stained face, I want to pull her into my arms and tell her we’ll get through this. But the trust between us has fractured, and I don’t know if I can put it back together.
“I need some time,” I say, my voice finally betraying my exhaustion. What I don’t say is I need you. I need this not to be happening. I need the last hours of my life back. “We both do.”
I move toward the hall closet and grab my leather jacket for the next day.
“Connor?” Meesha’s voice rises. “What are you doing?”
I move toward the door, grabbing my keys from the hook on the wall. “I need space to think,” I say, pocketing my keys.
She reaches for my arm. “Don’t leave. We can talk this through. Please stay.”
I step back, creating distance between us. “I’ll be at my house.”
Her eyes widen. “With your mother and Frédérique?”
“Oui, it’s still my house.”
“Connor, that’s—” She stops herself, a fresh wave of tears spilling down her cheeks. “Please don’t go there. Drop me off at home, and you can have this place to yourself if you want space.”
“Pas question. I need familiar walls right now.” I reach for the doorknob.
“But your ex-girlfriend is there!” Her voice breaks on the words. “How is that better than staying here with me?”
“The difference is I’ve proven to be the most trustworthy of us.”
Her eyes flash with anger through her tears. “Trustworthy? You want to talk about trustworthy?” She crosses her arms tightly across her chest. “Fréd mentioned you were trapped at your house with them during the entire blizzard. For almost ten days.”
I freeze, my hand still on the doorknob.
“You told me you were here the whole time,” she continues, her voice shaking. “You texted me every day, talking about what you were doing here, how you missed me. But you were with her the entire time.”
I turn slowly to face her. “That’s different.”
“Is it?” Her laugh is bitter. “You lied to me for days, Connor. You made a conscious choice to deceive me.”
“I didn’t want you to worry—”
“You didn’t want me to know you were living with your ex!”
I meet her gaze steadily. “The difference is I didn’t cheat on you, Meesha. I didn’t kiss Frédérique. I didn’t touch her. I slept in my bedroom and finalized the details and payments for our wedding while counting the hours until I could see you again.”
“But you still lied.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “You misled me about where you were and who you were with. And now you’re holding my mistake over my head like it erases your deception.” She shakes her head. “I’m not saying what I did wasn’t wrong. It was. But it hurts that you think your lie somehow doesn’t count just because you didn’t kiss her.”
I don’t deny it. “I’m sorry about that. I should have been honest with you from the beginning about where I was during the storm. That was wrong of me, and I failed you there, Meesha. I know that.” I pause, choosing my next words carefully. “But I need you to understand there’s a difference between me being trapped in my own house with my ex due to a blizzard—wherenothing happened between us—and you consciously choosing to kiss another man. Both were breaches of trust, but they’re not the same.”
Meesha’s shoulders collapse inward. “I made one mistake. One. After ten years of loving you.”
“A mistake you hid for weeks while I planned our future.” I open the door. “While I ensured our new house was to your standards and booked our honeymoon, all the time thinking we were solid.”
