He winced.“Why did I know you were going to say that?”
“Please understand… I’m not a big fan of marriage myself after the last few years with Gabriel, but my kids deserve a real family and maybe a dad to be there for them since Gabriel can’t be.I don’t know what the future holds, but I don’t want to rule out any possibilities.”
The same heart that had expanded when she’d said her kids had asked about him wanted to shrivel up and die at the thought of having to let her go to find some other guy to help her raise her kids.“That’s fair.”
“I want you to know I get why you feel the way you do.I… I watched a few episodes of that reality show about your family, and I ached for you, imagining what it must’ve been like to have that story on blast.”
He hated that she’d watched that but didn’t blame her for being curious about who she was sleeping with.“It was brutal.I hated that the whole world knew our business and that my parents ate it up because it was so good for their divorce practices.The phone rang off the hook with new business.”
“It’s just gross.”
“That’s a very good word for it.”
“But you were very cute back then.Not as cute as you are now, though.”
“I was nevercute.”
“Hate to break it to you—you were andarevery cute.”She kissed him.“And sexy and sweet and hot.”
“That last part is all fine, but the cute shit isnot.”
Smiling, she said, “I give you and your siblings so much credit for not only maintaining relationships with your parents but also working with them.That can’t be easy.”
“It’s easier than it would’ve been back in the day when it was all so raw.That was a long time ago now.A lifetime ago, really.”
“But the scars are forever.”
“Yeah, they are.”
“I get that.I’ll never get over some of the things that happened in my marriage, such as him going missing for weeks at a time and then swearing to me that everything would be different if we had kids, and for a while, it was better.We had Theo, and he was great with him.Being a father seemed to change everything for him.But, of course, it didn’t last.When I was pregnant with Mila, he started disappearing again, and then when she was born, he was nowhere to be found.He didn’t meet her until she was a month old.”
“God, Isla.I’m so sorry you had to bring her into the world on your own.”
“It was rough.I had some postpartum depression after she was born that really rocked me, and having to take care of two little ones in the midst of wondering where the hell my husband was and what he was doing and where all the money had gone…”
He held her as tightly as he dared, wishing he could take away all the hurt she’d experienced.
“That was when the marriage truly ended for me.After that, I was all about trying to save enough money to leave, but I could never seem to get ahead of the day-to-day needs of two kids, rent, car payments, insurance and all the things.People like to say, ‘Why don’t women just leave?’Well, that’s why we don’t leave.Because we can’t.And I was too ashamed to go to Denny, especially since he’d told me not to marry him in the first place.He had a bad feeling about him from the beginning.I think maybe he saw the future with Gabriel from the start.”
“Not much gets by him.”
“He didn’t know the truth of what was going on with us.When he came to meet Mila, I told him Gabriel had been called into work on an emergency job.I’m not sure if he believed me, but he didn’t ask any questions.”
“He probably knew something was off but didn’t want to add to your stress at an already tough time.”
“I have no doubt he sensed trouble, but I was stubborn and proud and stupid, as it turns out.I wish I’d gone to him when it got really bad.”
“You’re far from stupid.That hiding place in the apartment is one of the baddest-ass things I’ve ever heard of in more than thirteen years of family law practice.Seriously impressive.”
“Desperate times and all that.”
“Incredible ingenuity.From the second I heard about that, I was eager to meet the person who’d figured out a plan like that.And then you strolled?—”
She kissed him hard.“I never want to hear that word again.”
“Aw, don’t say that.It’s part of our story.”
“We have a story?”
