Sure enough, as I rounded the corner, I saw Ace standing at the front counter with a scowl on his face.
I pushed through the door that separated the lobby from the exam rooms. “What are you doing here?”
Ace stormed over to me and grabbed me by the arm. It wasn’t too tight or painful, but his grip was firm.
“What are you doing?” I whispered as not to alarm the patients who waited.
“Savannah, are you okay?” Reese asked. The wrinkle in her brow read concerned. “I can call the police.”
Ace glared at her over his shoulder before turning back to me. His face looked as if he dared me to tell her yes, call the police.
“It’s okay, Reese.” I held my free hand up. “He’s my husband.”
I turned and pulled open the door that led to the exam rooms. Ace kept ahold of my arm, trailing me as we entered the room.
He shut the door behind us.
“Why did you do it?” he demanded before I could ask him what this was all about.
“Do what?”
“Marry me. Why the hell did you bother marrying me when you didn’t want to?”
I took a step back, needing to put space between our bodies. “How could you ever think that?” I shook my head in disbelief.
“You all but said it right before we made our vows.”
I thought back to that day, showing up in the cab with his mother.
“You gave me every excuse not to get married. You were hesitant, but you still went through with it. Why? Why the fuck would you do that if you were just going to walk away?”
The question came out strained. A strain that spoke of the underlying feeling of betrayal. It was that tone that cut me more profoundly than his vitriol.
“I never would’ve said those vows if I didn’t mean every single word.”
My voice trembled with emotion. I could still picture us in that gazebo, young but so in love. I’d choked up while reciting my vows because my body had felt like it overflowed with the love I felt for him.
“You used every excuse you could think of to get out of marrying me.”
“Ace, that’s not even remotely true.”
“Then what the hell was that conversation about before our vows?”
“I was scared,” I yelled, forgetting I was at work. “I went to my grandmother the day before our wedding and told her we were getting married. Do you know what she did?” I paused.
Ace just looked at me.
“She slapped the hell out of me. Told me I was making the biggest mistake of my life. Just like my mother did when she had me.”
I didn’t bother telling him the rest of what my grandmother said. That she’d told me Ace was just using me for a good time and that he’d soon tire of me and leave me deserted. Probably with a baby, like my father did to my mother.
“I called your mother and told her we were getting married because I wanted the blessing from at least one of our parents.” I swiped angrily at the stupid tear that fell from my eye. “I wanted her to be there, and I knew you needed her to be there. Whether you knew it or not.”
My chest heaved, and I had to turn away from Ace. Reliving the past was painful enough when I did it in my head, but staring him in the face as I did was almost unbearable.
“I went to your grandmother,” he said, “after you left me.”
I turned to face him again as my mouth fell open.
