Never in my life have I felt like I wanted to burrow into the ground like I want to do right now. I don’t regret what I’ve done.I just assumed this would happen when nobody was around, not in the middle of one of Ava’s parties.
Marius looks at me with confusion and then back at the man. “I’m Marius King.”
As he hands him the yellow envelope, he says, “This is for you then. Have a good day.”
I don’t know how it’s possible, but I don’t faint dead away when Marius opens up the envelope and begins to read the papers. I want to run away from this house as fast as I can, but I’m not able to move my feet. It’s like they’re encased in concrete.
I’m stuck standing here watching the man I love read the words no man ever wants to see.
When he looks at me again, all I see is pure pain in his dark eyes.
Holding the papers up in front of him, he walks over to me and asks with so much hurt in his voice, “What’s this?”
I hang my head, and in a tiny voice, I answer, “Please, Marius. Don’t do this.”
“I could say the same thing to you. Why Duck?”
As much as I want to avoid meeting his gaze, I lift my head and say, “It’s okay. Sometimes things just don’t work out, even when you want them to more than anything. Don’t make a big deal about this. It’s just the way it is.”
Marius takes a step toward me, and I know he wants to reach out and touch me. “I don’t agree.”
“Just sign the papers, Marius. I don’t want anything. Sign them, and we’ll be done.”
He shakes his head. “No. I won’t sign them.”
I have no choice. He didn’t want to make us public, but now his family is going to finally find out everything.
“I’ve waited for you, Marius. For the first year and a half that we were married, we didn’t even live together. Maybe I’m partlyto blame for this. I don’t know. I went along with everything you wanted because I loved you. I waited and waited, and every time I asked why we couldn’t tell everyone we were together, you said because you wanted a little more time. What I want is for someone to choose me. You didn’t, so we’re done.”
I couldn’t stop the tears now if I tried. All week, all I’ve wanted to do was cry my eyes out. I couldn’t. Maybe because it wasn’t definite.
Now it is.
“Duck…Eden, I won’t let us end like this,” he says, and the agony in his voice makes me feel like someone’s squeezing my heart.
Unable to look at the hurt in his eyes any longer, I run into the house to escape. Ava catches up to me just as I reach my car parked out front. For a second, she just shakes her head, like she doesn’t know what to say.
Then, finally, she steps toward me and wraps her arms around me. That’s all it takes for the tears to come full force. I sob like a baby as my best friend hugs me, all the while likely wondering what the hell kind of friend I am to keep something so big hidden from her.
When I calm down, I step back and lean against my car. “So, yeah, I’ve been your sister-in-law for two years.”
Her mouth drops open, and she stares at me in pure shock. “What? How? I don’t…I don’t understand.”
I sniffle and try to think of a logical way to tell her the story of Marius and me. It’s quite a tale to tell.
“Do you remember when I went to Las Vegas for the week with Justin two years ago?”
She nods. “Yeah. You broke up with him because he was a jackass the whole time.”
I wipe the tears from under my eyes and finally tell her the truth. “I was only with him the day we arrived there. Marius wasat the same hotel for a pool tournament. Justin got nasty with me, and Marius saw it.”
“What do you mean he got nasty with you?”
“Let’s say Justin got a little rough and pulled my hair because I wouldn’t do what he wanted.”
“He got rough? What the hell was wrong with him?” she asks in horror.
“Yeah. Marius saw, and he decked him, but in the middle of it all, I got punched in the eye. Then he got Justin thrown out of the hotel. I had nowhere to stay, so he invited me to his suite. One thing lead to another, and we slept together.”
