“You heard me. You don’t have a clue. Millie is a lot of things. She’s all over the place, wild, carefree, but she is not a gold digger. The one thing in the world Millie could care less about is money. Trust me, I was married to her for two years.”
He might as well have punched me. The bastard was married to her longer than I will be.
“And why should I listen to a criminal like you?”
He laughs hard at that. “I’m not a criminal; I’m a lawyer. Your investigator must have spelled my name wrong, too. Trevor with an ‘o’ is me, a lawyer, but Trever with an ‘e’ has a nasty rap sheet. We share the same last name. I found out about it when I got mistaken for him during my bar exam, so don’t kick yourself for screwing it up.
“In regards to Millie, I never hurt her physically. I would never lay a hand on a woman. We just didn’t belong together, and I’m afraid I hurt her in more ways than I realized at the time. I know that, now that I’m in a good relationship, which is why I’m here.”
“I’m confused. If you are in a good relationship, why did you stalk Millie?”
“Because I needed to give her this.” He lays a stack of papers in front of me. “Make sure she gets them. And if I were you, I would listen to her before you throw away what you have. Millie and I didn’t work out, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what a catch she is. I saw the two of you together. You fit. We didn’t. She was looking for a man who could tame her. But she doesn’t need to be tamed, you know that.”
I narrow my eyes and watch as he leaves. “And don’t worry, she can’t get half your money. But if you aren’t careful, she’ll get away with half of your heart.”
40
r /> Millie
I need to get up off the couch I’ve been sleeping on all night in Larkyn and Kade’s home. I need to pick myself up. I need to start over. And I need to explain and apologize to Sebastian.
Not because I deserve forgiveness, but because he deserves to hear the truth. He deserves to know what happened. He deserves to understand the pain that led to me hurting him.
I can’t sit here on this couch, and yet, I’m putting off seing Sebastian because the next time I see him could be the last time. Having Sebastian in my life, even when he’s upset with me, seems better than not having him in my life at all.
And then I feel him. Without looking up, I know he’s here. Apparently, today is going to be the last day I see him.
“Can we talk?” I ask as I look up at him. I should be the one to speak.
“No.”
His word cuts through me. But he continues toward me even though he said no. Does he want me to leave? I can understand since this is his brother and sister in law’s house.
He sits down on the couch next to me silently before finally saying, “We can’t talk. You should talk, and I can listen.”
He leans back, not giving me a clue to how he’s feeling. To what he’s thinking. But it’s clear he won’t be talking. This is my chance to come clean about everything. To tell him everything.
“His name was Gavin. We grew up together. Had that epic kind of love that you just know is going to last forever. Except it didn’t.” I swallow, it’s been a long time since I talked about Gavin. But it’s where my story starts—the first man who ever destroyed me.
“We were twenty when he proposed. We were poor. Neither of us went to college. We both worked three jobs a piece just to survive, but we were happy. We were going to have forever.” My voice cracks, reliving the pain.
“I said yes immediately. We got married in the courthouse that weekend. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for us. But then things changed.
“Small things at first. He wanted more. More money, more stability. He tried to tame me. To convince me that we shouldn’t live so spontaneously. I needed to focus on one career instead of twenty. I needed to lose weight so I was more appealing. I needed to…the needs just kept continuing, and I tried so hard to be what he wanted. I loved him, of course. I wanted to make him happy.”
I stare at my hands as I talk. I’m not telling Sebastian this so he’ll give me sympathy. I’m telling him so he can understand. No, I’m telling him so I can let the past go. So I can realize that although I loved him, he wasn’t right for me. No man has been, except maybe Sebastian.
“Our relationship was chaos, a complete storm. I didn’t realize the signs, I didn’t realize I was drowning. We never got the chance to fix it, before he suddenly died. A fluke seizure while he was driving, and then he was just gone.”
I close my eyes feeling the pain of the hole he left in my heart. “I struggled with him gone. I thought I needed a man to make me whole. I didn’t realize that what Gavin had done to me did lasting damage. I didn’t realize that what he did was abuse. I just thought I needed a man because that had been my entire life, and it was gone. Something was missing, so I tried to fill it.”
I take a deep breath. “So I married Noah. But he was worse. I barely got out with the money I brought in. And I vowed after him to stay away from men. But then Trevor entered. He was actually a good man. He was smart and intelligent and settled. He worked as a lawyer and helped me focus my passions into one. He got me to work as a photographer. And as much as I loved the work, it wasn’t who I was. I like to bounce around. I don’t need money or status to make me happy.”
I look at Sebastian for the first time. “That wasn’t what this was about. I never wanted your money; I still don’t.”
Sebastian sits still as a statue, unmoving. He doesn’t say anything. He’s just listening.
So I continue.