An Unexpected Love (Women's Fiction/BWWM Romance) by Stacy-Deanne Page A

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you had to win. You should’ve been a man and admitted you were wrong.”
    “Would it have mattered if I said I hadn’t
wanted a divorce, since you were so quick to throw things away?”
    “I refuse to even entertain this,
Patrick.” She walked to the door. “It’s over.”
    He sighed. “Layla.”
    “I’m not in love with you anymore.” She
held her breath. “I haven’t been in a long time. What I felt for you is gone,
and I don’t think it’s ever coming back.”
    He approached her. “I won’t let myself
believe that, Layla.”
    “It’s true.” She closed her eyes as a tear
fell. “You took who I was away. You chipped at me—little by little, for years—until
I had nothing left. I already didn’t have my sanity, and you took everything
else away.”
    “What the hell did I take?”
    “My independence, my job, my confidence … everything.”
    “I did what I felt was best for you.” He
held her by the arms. “Please know that.”
    “I think you believe that’s true.” She
sniffled. “But in the process, you killed me, Patrick. I’ve been a shell of
myself. I’ve been alive but not living. I can’t do that anymore.”
    “I’m supposed to believe that after twenty
years and two beautiful daughters…it’s over? Papers and a court doesn’t mean
it’s over, Lay.”
    “I’m telling you it’s over.” She grabbed the doorknob. “Goodbye, Patrick.”
    “I want you back.”
    “I’m sorry. I feel nothing for you.”
    His voice cracked. “Nothing?”
    “I mean—not outside of you being my kids’ father—no.
I feel no desire or passion or anything else for you.”
    “Are you sleeping with Cross?” He inhaled
with his jaws puffed out. “Are you fucking him?”
    “No, I’m not. But if I were, it’s not your
business.”
    “You can’t throw us away.” He grabbed her.
“I won’t let you.”
    “Let go of me!” She pushed him. “You don’t
run me anymore, Patrick. I’m not going back to you. It’s over! If you had
treated me right the first time, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
    “Sure is convenient that you feel this way
with your new friend around.”
    “He has nothing to do with this.” She
stuck her finger in his face. “For your information, Cross has given me more
support and encouragement in the few weeks I’ve known him than you did in our
entire marriage.”
    “Is that so?”
    She put her hand on her hip. “It is so.”
    “You’re making me out to be the bad guy?” He touched his chest. “Yet I was the one
who held everything together while your ass spent most of our marriage in this
place!” He hit the door. “ I practically raised the girls. I kept
things going when you had breakdowns so bad you couldn’t even comb your damn
hair.”
    She started to speak, but disgust willed
her against it.  
    “If it weren’t for me, we’d have lost
everything. You’ve played the victim ever since we got married.” He looked her
up and down. “And you wonder why Aliyah resents you so much.”
    “Get out.” She held on to the door. “Get
out!”
    People peeked in from the hall.
    “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,”
Patrick said.
    “Get your ass out of here right now!” She
grabbed his hand and pulled him the door. “How could you say something so cruel
to me?” Tears ran down her face. “Talking about how I couldn’t do something
during a breakdown and throwing it in my face that my daughter hates me?”
    He reached for her. “Layla.”
      “No!”
She slapped his hand down. “This is the real Patrick. Right here. It’s not the
one who brought me these damn flowers.” She yanked them off the dresser and
threw them at him. “Thanks for reminding me why I shouldn’t regret the
divorce.”
    “Layla…I…”
    She slammed the door in his face.

 

CHAPTER SEVETEEN
    Three Weeks Later

 
    Someone knocked on Layla’s door at
Wellington.
    She laid another blouse in her suitcase as
she said, “Come in.”
    Cross came in.