His Love, My Choice (Book 2) [Completed] - book 1 on Inkitt dot com

Chapter 26 - Laera

I know he didn't want to leave me in the room alone with her. In fact, he looked as if he was going to physically remove me from the room when I saw his eyes practically bulging outside of his head at my suggestion that I remain behind in the room with her.

Max had unceremoniously dropped her off at the door and quickly disappeared, but something inside of me just knew that if I stepped foot outside in that hallway, I'd find both Max and Liam standing with their ears pressed against the door.

It made me feel warm and gooey inside that my husband would act that way because of me.

All thoughts had fallen away from me that Liam didn't trust me. No, the mistrust was for her, this woman standing before me who I hadn't laid eyes on in weeks.

"How are you?"

While it seemed like a simple enough question coming from her mouth, it still gave me pause. Thinking for all the months that she deceived me. Her deception was deep and bottomless as far as I was concerned. She didn't tell me even one truth the entire time that I knew her, or at least that's what I imagined.

But yet here she was, and a part of me still was desperate to know why because although she'd been completely and thoroughly dishonest with me, and I with her in terms of hiding my true identity, there had been moments when I'd lived in truth with her.

We'd become closer than probably anyone else had to me in years. So, to just discard those emotions wasn't in me.

"I'm well enough," I answered, and I'm not even sure why those words came out of my mouth. I could've just admitted to her that I was more than just fine. I was happy. I am happy. But something is holding me back.

If she read anything into my answer, I only see a brief look move across her face before it goes back to her resting face of quietness. I used to find calm in that look of hers, but now it just makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. And, if I'm not mistaken, the look that she followed it up with just now was anger because it wasn't subtle enough to just be discomfort. It took me a moment to sit with the fact that something about me drew that out of her.

"Why are you here, Tabitha?"

And there it was again, that look as if something was unfinished between us, and she was at a loss for how to put it right. But it's manifesting as a very strong emotion that is threatening to overwhelm her, and I can see that she's almost gritting her teeth to keep herself in check.

After another beat, she finally begins speaking again.

"I just needed to see that you're okay," she says, and it feels like she's hurting me all over again with her lies because she's only speaking in half-truths to me. We used to be so close. This distance is foreign and unfamiliar territory.

"Well, as you can see, I am okay, so..." and I wave both of my hands up in the air. Her head dips slightly toward her chest as if she is trying to find the right words to say next when her eyes widen suddenly.

Placing my hands back at my sides, I don't immediately know why her body has suddenly gone rigid until I follow her gaze to my hands, my ring finger in particular.

"You married him?" I can hear the surprise in her voice as it cracks toward the end. "But I read that..." and she doesn't get to complete her sentence as the door suddenly opens wide. Wide enough for me to observe Liam and Max just to the left of him, while Liam steps over the threshold, Max doesn't move.

Liam is beside me in an instant.

"I think that's enough for today. I only agreed to let you come and see her if you promised not to make her unwell," Liam's words are strung together so quickly that what was probably meant as a rebuke comes out sounding more like a threat.