ten, unable to endure any more. He’d won. Couldn’t he see that he’d won? Did he have to break her completely? “Then prove it,” she cried, jumping up. “Prove you love me. Do what’s best for me. Let me go.”
He stood before her, expression shuttered. “Giving up on you, giving up on us, doesn’t prove love. It shows defeat.”
“I’m not a challenge. I’m not a business deal.”
“I know. You’re my wife.”
“But I don’t want to be your wife, not like this, and for me, this...” She gestured to the room, the house, the city beyond the windows, “This will never be okay.”
She had to go. She had to get out of here. She’d leave everything behind. She didn’t need her clothes, or her suitcase. She just needed her passport. “I’m leaving,” she said hoarsely. “Tonight. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t want money. I just want my passport so I can go.”
“What about Michael’s?”
“I’m not taking him with me. He will stay here with you for now, but I’m hiring an attorney. I’m going to sue for custody—”
“It could take years, and I’m not sure you’d win.”
“What else am I to do? Stay here and pretend that you didn’t lie to me and manipulate me?”
“I’m asking you to forgive me. I’m asking you to understand that I was in a difficult position, too.”
“I was not a gold digger!” She threw the words at him, eyes brilliant with unshed tears. “I never wanted your money. I wanted you.”
“Good. Because I want you. Not just want you. I need you.” He hesitated. “I need you with me.”
“You don’t mean it. You can’t even say the words without flinching.”
“It’s true. I don’t speak of love easily, and until tonight, I have never told any woman I loved her. Just as you refused to make love until you had found the right one, I have held out, too. There are only a few people in my life that I can say I truly love. My mother. My brother. Michael. And you.” He approached her. “Yes, you. I love you, Rachel.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re desperate.”
“You’re absolutely right. I am desperate. I’m desperate for you to stay. I’m desperate to salvage what’s left of our wedding day. Today was horrendous, but we still have the night—”
“No.”
“Yes. We have the night, and we have every night from now on. I’m not going to let you go. This is your home now. You belong here, with me.” He moved toward her, a slow walk to match his measured words. “Rachel, I didn’t have to marry.”
“But you did. The media...the company going public...you couldn’t have the scandal.”
“Money is money. I have plenty of it, but money doesn’t buy happiness and I would never, ever marry just to protect my financial interests or investments.”
“But you said—”
“It was a tactic.” He shrugged, unrepentant. “I wanted you here. I wanted you with me. And yes, I want Michael, but I want you every bit as much. From the moment you appeared on my doorstep, you’ve been mine. I waited thirty-eight years to find someone like you. You can’t think I’m just going to give you up?”
Her head spun. He was saying the right words, all the things she’d wanted him to say, but why did he wait so long? Why hadn’t he shared all of this before? “You just don’t want me to go.”
“You’re right. I didn’t marry you in an extravagant, romantic wedding to lose my bride before the honeymoon.”
She drew a quick, sharp breath. “There will be no honeymoon.”
“Of course there will, but there won’t be if you leave.”
He was trying a new tactic, she thought, and she didn’t want to be intrigued but she couldn’t help showing a little interest. “Why haven’t you mentioned it before?” she asked suspiciously.
“Because it was supposed to be a surprise.”
She wished she wasn’t curious. She wished she didn’t care. But she did care, not about the trip, but about what he might have planned for her. For them. “Where were we going to go?”