I’ve got to distract her with a new reason to hate me.
“Odin wasn’t a stray. I adopted him from a shelter,” I blurt. Her nostrils flare, and she backs away from me.
“I made him look like he was a stray because you’re a sucker for that. Plus, that whole thing in your dad’s letter, he set me up for that, I had to take advantage.”
Her gaze darts to Odin. “What else?” she says, voice flat as she peers at our dog.
Sabotaged your last relationship . . . read some of your dad’s letters to manipulate your feelings . . . married you.Minor infractions.
Kelly must pick up on my silence, so she slowly brings her attention back to me and narrows her eyes. “Iamthe owner of Black Rabbit, right? The way Dad wanted it to be?”
Well, fuck, so much for that strategy!
Careful. . . “We both own it,” I reply.
She cocks her head to the side, crossing her arms again. “You’re lying to me.”
I shake my head.Technically, it’s marital property, and in Minnesota, that means she gets half.
She throws up her hands and raises her voice. “Well, am I tits deep in back taxes, then? Why hasn’t the government comearound and asked me for money? Show me the paperwork that shows we own it.”
She stalks toward me, and I back up.
Hard pass.“No.”
Her raised chin tells me she’s squaring up for a fight. “Why not?” she demands.
I rub the back of my neck.She’s got me backed into a corner.“I can’t tell you that.”
She gives an exaggerated blink. “What?” Her tone is sharp.
My hands are tied on this one. I can’t tell her everything, or I’ll lose her. Our marriage is something that was going to happen eventually, and it allowed me to make sure she would get the business should anything happen to me. It killed two birds with one stone . . . It also ensured that if she ever tried to divorce me, I would still keep half of Black Rabbit. The tattoo shop tied us for life. She’s too sentimental to walk away from her dad’s shop—and so am I.
She buries her face in her hands. “I can’t do this.”
“Dowhat?”
I unclench my jaw and try to have a little perspective. She’s dealing with information overload and just needs time to process everything. Her eyes glimmer as tears swell to the brim.
“This.” Her body slackens, arms falling at her sides as if they’re too heavy to hold up for even one more second. “You. Us. Installing sensors. Odin. Keeping secrets. All of it.”
I step forward, my voice rising. “Stop. We’re not doing that.”
“I need space. A break. Not saying forever, but for now.” My ears ring as the silence around us seems to pulse at the finality of her words.
A break?A fucking break?
The suffocation starts in my chest, spreading from my lungs and tightening every organ in its path. By the time it hits my mind, my thoughts can’t even breathe.
She’s giving up.
My spiraling thoughts eat away at the silence, filling it with raw noise as I search every possibility, every cause-and-effect outcome that will get her to stay. As my vision tunnels, there’s a flicker of hope, like a shot in the dark.
It’s almost too simple.I’m fucked anyway, might as well have a little pre-party for the apocalypse.My mouth tips up in a smile. I inhale deep and blow the air out smoothly, steadying my breaths as my heart rate slows.
Just because she wants a break doesn’t mean I have to give it to her.I won’t let her.
She doesn’t get to give up on us. I didn’t wait years to make her mine and risk it all just so she could throw in the towel when shit gets hard. Not a chance in hell. If Kelly wants a fight, then I’ll give her one, but she better strap the fuck in because tonight won’t be ending with one of us walking away.
