I look over at him, and although his face is stoic and his voice is calm, it’s obvious he is worried as well. I reach between us for his hand and slide my fingers through his. He looks down at my hand and then up at me. He dips his chin but doesn’t remove his hand. I’m not sure if I was borrowing his strength or lending him mine.
The moment we stop at the cemetery, I’m out of my seatbelt and opening the door. The others pile out with me.
“Let me go alone first.” I know they are just as eager to see their brother as I am. But I needed to see him first.
Looking at the faces of his brothers, I can tell they want to argue. They’ve known him longer and have more experiences between them. But it’s the slight nod from Mason that tells me he understands my request and needs.
“Go. We will wait here.”
I turn and take off for the monument I know Nico had erected for his parents. My heart is pounding and I’m out of breath, but I let out a sigh of relief when I see my husband sitting on that bench. I don’t speak as I slowly approach him from the back.
“I’m glad you came,” he says without turning to look at me.
I imagine he knew the second he stepped out of his hiding spot that we would all come for him. This wasn’t by accident.
“Are the guys here?”
“Yes, they are waiting by the car.”
He’s silent again. He won’t turn around and show me his face, and that is all I want to see. I just want to see his eyes. Seeing his eyes will tell me everything I need to know.
“Nico—”
Before I could finish, he spoke. “I talked with my lawyer.”
Weird start to this conversation, but okay.
“I have the divorce papers drawn up. You and Noah will get the house and half of all my earnings.”
My heart is now racing in my chest for another reason. My mind is working slowly; words are flying through my mind like crazed birds. I can’t catch one to make sense.
“I’ve agreed to pay you alimony for the next twenty-five years. After that, we can renegotiate.”
“Nico,” I whisper his name as I move from behind him to stand in front of him. The moment I’m facing my husband, a pain hits my stomach. I’ve never seen Nico like this. His beard is long, his hair unkempt, prominent dark circles are under his eyes. He looks as if he hasn’t eaten or slept in the last two days.
His gaze remains everywhere but on me.
“Look at me.”
Slowly, those dark brown eyes I love lift to me. The pain lying behind those dark orbs nearly pulls a gasp from me. As quickly as his focus lands on me, he puts it somewhere else.
“All I ask,” he goes on to say. “Is that you allow me to see my son.”
Silence sits between us, heavy and thick. Many things go through my head. What could I have done in these last two days that would make him want to divorce me?
The man that refused to even let me stay away from him longer than six days when I was angry with him. A man that reminded me nonstop that he wasn’t letting me go. One that fucked me so passionately and angrily when he thought I was sneaking off with another man. What the hell changed in those two days?
“He thinks we see him the way he sees himself.”Mason’s words come to mind.
I shake my head at the thought. “No.”
This time when he looks at me, he doesn’t turn away. “What?”
I chuckle. “Why would I do that?”
His eyes close, and he drops his head, his shoulder slumping.
“Tiff—”
