“How can we have everything, William?”
Her voice crumpled. “What would that even look like? Truly?”
She wiped angrily at the tears beginning to spill.
“And more children?” Her voice was thin, wounded. “You want more children with me?”
“Yes,” he breathed. “God, yes—”
“What of Lily?” she choked. “She would be illegitimate—and our other children wouldn’t be. How is that fair to her? How could I do that to her?”
He sucked in a breath, the hurt unmistakable.
The words ripped out of her before she could stop them.
“And it’s your fault.”
Her vision blurred.
“Did you truly believe you could ride back into my life, say you were sorry, fix a fence—
and I would forgive you like none of it ever happened?”
He took one helpless step toward her.
“Violet—”
“No.” Her voice was a razor’s edge. “No, you don’t get to speak now.”
She swallowed hard.
“You chose your title—your reputation, your peers—over me once.”
Her voice shook. “Why should I believe you wouldn’t do it again? Especially when they will never accept Lily. Not truly. Not as equal to your future children.”
Her bottom lip trembled.
“I cannot…”
She broke.
“I cannot give my daughter a life where she must live in the shadow of her own siblings.”
Silence fell—thick, devastating.
He halted, every breath in him seeming to stop.
And she heard herself speak before she could think better of it.
“I do love you. I always have. And I suspect I always will.”
She wrapped her arms around herself.
“But I need you to leave.”
A tear slid down her cheek.
“I cannot look at you every day and survive it…
