“I want to take care of you, Ellie. Will you please let me?”
Softness radiates in her beautiful blue stare. She nods. I kiss her forehead, then close the door and hop in the driver’s seat.
As I drive toward our vacation rental, she’s quiet.
“What did Damien say to you when you took him outside the bar?” she finally asks.
“Nothing worth repeating.” My grip on the steering wheel tightens when I think about the awful shit that motherfucker said.
Ellie glances at my hands, probably focused on how white my knuckles are.
I force myself to loosen my grip and take a slow, quiet breath to ease the adrenaline still pumping through me.
“I heard what he said when you dragged him out of the bar. That I owe him money,” Ellie says, her voice quiet. “He’s lying, Camden.”
I turn to look at her. When I see the pleading look on her face, it feels like I’ve been kicked in the gut. Is she really worried that I’d believe anything that piece of shit says about her?
“I know that, Ellie. I don’t believe a word that came out of his mouth. You don’t have to worry,” I say softly. I grab her hand in mine.
She lets out a breath like she’s relieved, then glances down at our joined hands. “I want to explain though. You deserve to know the truth.”
She takes another deep breath before she speaks again. “When we were together, he asked me to move in with him, which I did. I’ve never signed the lease he was on, but I paid him my share of the rent and other expenses. But then…” She trails off and looks off to the side for a moment. “Well, you remember when I told you how badly things went between us after we tried having sex, and it didn’t go the way he wanted?”
Every muscle in my body tenses with how pissed off I am just thinking about that. “Yeah.”
“We fought about it a few times. The arguments got really bad.”
I turn to look at her, rage firing through me. “Did he put his hands on you?’
She shakes her head. “No, he just yelled. The neighbors at our apartment would complain about the noise to the leasing company, so we fought about that too. Then he kicked me out. I figured I was done dealing with him. But then I guess he got kicked out of the apartment too for all the loud fighting. So he’s been texting and calling me since then, trying to get me to give him money for breaking the lease.”
“But you didn’t break the lease,” he says. “Only his name was on it, and he kicked you out. You don’t owe him anything.”
She lets out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I know. I explained that to him. He doesn’t care. In his mind, it’s my fault we fought because I didn’t have sex with him the way he wanted. In his mind, I owe him money.”
I glare at the road head. “That fucking piece of shit.”
My heart hammers in my chest at how angry I am. I force myself to take another slow, deep breath.
“And, um, when he found out that we got married, he started demanding even more money from me. I refused, of course. I’m not paying him anything.”
I grit my teeth so hard, my head starts to ache. I turn to her. “So you’ve been dealing with this by yourself this whole time?”
She nods.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Ellie?” I make sure my tone is soft, despite how pissed off I am at what he’s put her through.
“I didn’t want to stress you out. This isn’t your problem.”
Her words trigger something inside of me. Something wild and protective.
I pull over to the side of the highway and turn to her. I hold her gaze. “Your problems are my problems now, baby. You’re my wife.”
Her eyes are big as she looks at me, clearly surprised to hear me say that.
She swallows. “Do you mean that?”
“Of course I mean that.”
