Somehow, he’d always known this day would come. It was almost a relief to get it over with, rather than always wondering when it would happen. When she would leave him. His hands tightened over the ring, feeling the hard diamond bite into his palm. He spoke over the razor blade in his throat.
“I will start divorce proceedings tomorrow.”
Her lips parted. “What?”
“I’ll do what I should have done a long time ago.” He looked at her. “Set you free.”
Tears streaked her pale, beautiful face like stardust in the fading red twilight outside the latticed window. “I just can’t live with a man who doesn’t trust me. Who tries to control every aspect of my life.”
“I understand.” He gave her a grim smile. “I told you on our wedding day that when our marriage ended, the prenuptial agreement would see us through.”
His wife looked white and wan, standing beside the bed. She looked like a ghost. “I didn’t think you would let me go so easily.”
He tried to ignore the fierce, white-hot blade of pain that entered his body.
“I am tired,” he said harshly, “of always wondering what you’re thinking. What you’re doing. Tired of waiting for the day you’ll wise up and leave.” Rising to his feet, he cupped her cheek. She shuddered a little, turning toward his touch like a flower. He said hoarsely, “It’s almost easier this way.”
“And Marisol …” she whispered.
The knife twisted in his chest. Dropping his hand, he stepped back. “We will always be her parents. We’ll be respectful of each other, for her sake. I will pay child support. We will share custody.”
“Right,” she said, looking dazed. “Right.”
“And if there is another child …” His lips curved humorlessly. “This time, you will tell me, sí?”
“Yes. Yes, I will.” Callie’s lovely, round face looked bewildered as she swayed where she stood, like a drunk who’d lost her balance.
“You and your family can return to North America tomorrow.”
She turned, walked two steps then looked back at him. He could see her shaking. “And Brandon?”
“Ah, yes.” He smiled grimly. “Brandon. As you said, he is a member of your family, is he not? As I,” he added lightly, “never was.”
She swallowed then looked up at him pleadingly. “You won’t … won’t do anything to hurt him?”
Reaching out, Eduardo brushed some long wavy tendrils of light brown hair off her shoulder. Even now, saying goodbye, he was mesmerized by Callie’s beauty. Now more than ever. When he was losing her forever.
“Of course I will not hurt him. I’m not the monster you seem to think.” He remembered how he’d been tempted to kill the man just hours before, and shook his head with a hard laugh. “Well. I have no reason to hurt him now. Our marriage is over. We are free.”
“Free …” she whispered.
McLinn’s harsh words from long ago went through Eduardo’s mind. You can’t keep me from her. We both know you’re not good enough for her. You’ll never make her happy. And he realized that he’d always agreed. But he’d tried to keep Callie just the same. Selfish and wrong, when he knew he’d never be able to love her the way she deserved. Christ—he couldn’t even sleep in the same bed.
“Yes. You’re free.” Eduardo turned away, making his voice deliberately casual as he said, “Marisol fell asleep in her playpen, in your parents’ room. Do you want to see her?”
Callie did not answer. She just looked at him, her green eyes dark as a midnight sea. Her beautiful, grief-stricken face was more than Eduardo could bear. It had to end, he thought heavily. So let it end. Merciful and quick.
Taking his wife’s limp hand, he pulled her out of their bedroom and through the deepening shadows of the courtyard. Midway through the garden, she stopped. He looked back at her in the twilight, surrounded by the shadows of palm trees and the soft cool burble of the fountain. Crystalline tears sparkled down her pale cheeks, glimmering in the fading moonlight.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her eyes luminous. “So sorry.”
Exhaling, Eduardo slowly pulled her into his arms. She pressed her face against his heart, which felt like it was breaking beneath his ribs.
Her voice was sodden, muffled against his shirt. “I didn’t want it to end this way …”
His arms trembled around her. He thought of all his mistakes, everything he’d done wrong from the beginning, all the things he would have changed if he could. But the truth was he didn’t know how. He couldn’t trust anyone—especially not someone he loved. Because deep in his heart, he didn’t believe in happy endings, only bad ones. Ones that felt like this.
“It was never your fault,” he said, stroking her hair. “Just mine. All mine.”