“Know that now. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“You know what, Ridge?” His eyes met mine, and for a minute I thought it was pointless to even talk to him, but after we were done, I would probably never get the chance again. So, I continued with the point I needed to make to him. “Even if you didn’t mean the first part, the second part still happened.”
“Second part?” he asked. His confused, inebriated brain probably had a hard time following the conversation, but my broken heart didn’t leave a lot of room for patience.
“When you said you should have taken her up on what she offered on your last birthday. You lied to me. Never said a word, despite the fact that we had an understanding that if anything like that ever came up, you would talk to me about it.”
“I thought she was joking.”
“Did it seem like she was joking this year when she brought you liquor, got you drunk, and convinced you that I was cheating on you? Last year was just a forewarning of her plan to get you into bed anyway possible and you let it go. Worse, you never told me about it. You lied to me. This all goes back to a year ago when you broke my trust. I just didn’t know you had done it yet.”
Ridge looked away, but I moved forward and grabbed his chin to force him to look me in the eye.
“I understand the position you were put in. Considering our behavior over the last couple months, while we tried to surprise you. I could even understand how you could be tricked into thinking Moreland and I were having an affair. I could have forgiven you for that eventually. I’m not stupid, I see how she worked to manipulate you. The problem is that she shouldn’t have been there to do all that damage. Had you told me about her coming on to you, offering herself as your present a year ago, she would have never been in our lives to be the catalyst for this nightmare.”
“Please,” Ridge begged.
“My little brother stood beside me and watched as you spoke that way about me while you were inside another woman. Drake was almost as devastated as I was. My family, your family, people you work with all saw and heard what you were up to. They won’t know all the moving parts that led you to make the decision you did. They have no clue what happened. Do you know who will have to answer those questions?”
“You won’t, I swear.”
“I will, because they’ll ask.”
“No.”
“You need to pack a bag. Go back to the office. Go to your parents’ house, if they’ll have you. Go anywhere but here. I can’t look at your face.”
“I don’t want to leave our home.”
“Don’t worry, you can have it back. After what happened tonight, I can’t stomach the thought of spending another day here. This was supposed to be the house we raised our family in. We waited to pick out the perfect place that we both loved and in two minutes, you ruined it for me. You ruined everything.”
“Vi,” Ridge pleaded. “No, sweets. We can get a new house. We can work this out. You are the love of my life.”
“If this is how you treat the love of your life, then I don’t want to be loved by you.” I got up and moved to the stairs. Before I made it up a single one, Ridge managed to stumble to a standing position. “You know what? You’re in no shape. You should go lie down on the couch. We’ll talk after you sober up.”
I could see the hope in his eyes as he bobbed his head up and down in agreement. Too bad for my husband that I decided being in this house even one more night wasn’t something I could stand. As he stumbled over to the couch and crashed almost face first into the cushions, it really hit me just how drunk he still was. He said he killed an entire bottle of bourbon. Even if it was a smaller size, that was a lot for a man who rarely ever sipped on one single drink at social outings.
Ridge had never been a drinker, so I knew how much of an impact that had to have on his judgment. Still, as I said before, that would only have been a factor had I not heard him talk about a prior incident. An incident he never bothered to tell me about. It was a deal breaker for me because it meant he put himself into a position to be set up like that. There was a reason we had that rule in place from the very beginning of our relationship. It was as much to cover his ass legally as it was to make me comfortable with the people he had to work so closely with.
While my husband was passed out on the couch in our living room amidst the remnants of his ruined surprise party, I packed my bags and took several trips to load up my vehicle. Thankfully, I had opted for a larger SUV since we planned to have children. I wanted to get comfortable with a family-sized vehicle before the children came along. The children wouldn’t factor into the equation any longer but at least I had plenty of room to stow all my luggage.
Chapter 11
Ridge
I came awake coughing thanks to my overly dry throat. That did nothing for the marching band that pounded out a horrific beat in my swollen head. The damn thing felt like it had been filled with cement overnight. Something also weighed heavily on my chest, like my whole world had been snatched from underneath me the night before. I clutched my chest and wondered if I was going to be one of those statistics. Rich guys who work too hard, don’t play enough, and then check out due to a heart attack without being able to enjoy the spoils.
“Vi?” I managed to croak out before the coughing started again. I needed water. Fuck. How was I hung over? I reached behind me for my wife and realized for the first time that I wasn’t even in our bed. Did I crash at work?
Despite the effort it took to lift my head, I managed to do so and then struggled to open my eyes against the light in… Our living room? What in the hell was I doing sleeping on the couch? Slowly, I sat up and tried to call for Violet again.
“Vi?” The house sounded as empty as it had yesterday when I woke up, but something about the room was weird. Off. Too full. My brain was muddled and fuzzy when a blue blob floated toward me and bopped me in the face as the air kicked in.
What in the fuck?
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Yesterday.
