Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
The man she had married.
The man she had left.
The man she still loved.
“Look at me.”
Earlier, when he had said those exact same words, his tone had been quiet. Not a plea, but a request. And she had managed to resist it.
But now, with him issuing those same words as a command—
It was as if her body still saw her husband as its master, and even though she knew it was wrong, she found herself actually obeying him.
Her head slowly lifting, her gaze colliding with his—
“Come back to me, Laina.”
Her eyes teared. She hadn’t expected him to say that. And when his head started to lower, even though she knew she should push him away and ask him to leave—
Her eyes closed at the same moment his mouth closed over hers. His arms found her waist at the same moment her arms went around his neck, her body already melting against his even as he was pulling her toward him.
The kiss deepened, and her tears started to fall even as the space between their bodies disappeared, and a familiar sense of heat enveloped her senses. For one long moment, even the pain wasn’t enough to hold her back, and she lost herself in the way he was holding her and kissing her. His hunger and his desperate need for her were all so, so familiar. It tempted her to forget everything and just give in—
But then they both heard a door outside her apartment slam open and shut, and the sound was enough to break free from the sensual spell that his kiss had weaved.
No no no no no no.
She pressed her hands against his chest, and even though he could have ignored it...she was thankful that was enough for him to take the hint. Troy slowly took a step back, and she could only bite her lip hard because the moment they were apart, it was like having the sunlight leave her world.
“Laina...”
She slowly shook her head.
He wanted to talk.
They way they should have talked a long, long time ago.
But now...
“C-Can we talk another time?”
She just couldn’t handle it.
“P-Please?”
There was a lot of things Troy wanted to say. But the moment he heard his wife’s voice break, he found himself slowly nodding.
“Alright.”
Because he had already hurt her enough.
Laina was so, so tired of crying. But the moment she saw the door close behind him, that was exactly what she found herself doing.
Why?
Why?
She didn’t even realize who she was talking to until her lips formed words that she found herself whispering out loud...
“Why, God?”
Why was it so hard to stop herself from loving him?
Was it because she was that stupid...or was He trying to tell her something else, and she just didn’t know what that was since she had never tried talking to God before?
I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry.
She didn’t know if she was saying sorry to him or herself. She just knew that there wasn’t just her and him in this marriage. She also had to think about his plans and his dreams, and how someone ordinary like her would keep all of those things from coming true.
Chapter Three
LAINA'S PHONE BUZZED at 6:14 in the morning, and it didn't stop.
Not one notification. Twenty-seven.
They arrived in a wave. Buzzing, buzzing, buzzing against the mattress on the floor, and Laina reached for the phone with her eyes still half-closed.
She was expecting an alarm she didn't remember setting or a text from Iris about the staff meeting or, in the worst and most treacherous part of her brain, a voicemail from a number she was trying not to call back.
She got none of those things.
Texts from numbers she didn't recognize, and seven missed calls from her...mother?
For someone like her mother, that was practically like the whole country going Code Red or something, and it was this that had her finally sitting up with a jerk. Something was clearly wrong, and that was when she saw the push alert at the very top of her screen. It was programmed to notify her every time Troy’s name popped up on the news. She should’ve deleted it the moment she had left him, but she had forgotten, and that turned out to be a good thing because how else would she have known about this?
WAYMAKERS MVP TROY BARRYMORE'S SECRET WIFE: EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS
Laina could feel herself going pale as she looked through the photos. There was one of her walking into school, and of course they had to choose that photo where her hair was at its most stubborn and messiest.
The other photos weren’t any better. There was one photo where her bag was sliding off one shoulder, another photo where they had caught her mid-blink.
And then there were the comments. She already knew it was the worst idea ever to read through them, but she still found herself scrolling down with shaking fingers—