Marriage Reunited

Chapter Two

"Everything okay?"

Lilly tore her gaze away from the magazine she had been reading to give her friend and boss a faint smile.

"I'm fine, just admiring the life of the rich and famous," she told her with just the right tone of wistfulness in her voice and Angelica grinned.

"If only we could be so lucky. I can tell you that I definitely would never kick him out of bed," Angelica said with a wistful sigh as she turned away to check that her restaurant was running smoothly.

Lilly's smile faded completely the second Angelica's back was turned and her green eyes darkened as pain pierced her heart. What would Angelica say if she knew that kicking him out of her bed was exactly what Lilly had done?

She had once thought that she was the only woman Connor wanted in his bed but over the past six years it had become clear that one woman would never have been enough for him and he was frequently pictured with a different woman on his arm at various functions. Lilly knew that it was stupid to read these magazines when she knew it would only cause her more pain but she simply couldn't help herself and more than once she had imagined herself being the woman gracing his arm as she undoubtedly would have been once.

The past six years had been hard on her and more than once she had found herself imagining what her life would have been like if things had been different, if she had done things differently. What if she hadn't gone to her father's that day? Would she still have lost the baby? The doctors had told her that it was likely it would have happened no matter what she had done differently but Lilly wasn't so sure. Maybe if she hadn't been so distressed the baby would have been fine. Or at the very least she would have had Connor by her side. If she hadn't known about him cheating on her then she would have stayed with him. They would have grieved their child together and by now she probably would have had more children and wouldn't instead be feeling this constant emptiness. Other children wouldn't have replaced the baby she lost but they might have eased the pain she felt even now. But then came the question of whether she would have wanted to continue living the lie rather than face up to the truth. Would she rather have remained oblivious to her husband's affair?

She hadn't spoken to her father since that day and she hated him for what he had done to her though he probably didn't even care. She probably would have forgiven her father if he had at least tried to explain why he had done it but she knew that it wasn't to protect her from a sham of a marriage but rather to get back at Connor by taking away the one thing he hadn't wanted him to have. He hadn't even tried to contact her after destroying her life completely and that really hurt her. Even Connor had managed to contact her though she wished that he hadn't.

She had discharged herself from the hospital and moved in with her mother for a while after losing the baby. Something that Connor had not taken well although that could have been because she hadn't told him. He had been stunned to find her gone from the hospital but it hadn't taken him long to track her down. Nearly two hours after she had discharged herself he turned up on the doorstep and refused to leave until he had seen her. Lilly had finally agreed but only because it was clear he would never leave otherwise.

Connor had been confused but understanding at first when she had told him that she didn't want this marriage anymore and didn't want him. He had been understanding and sympathetic to her feelings. Of course she felt like that, he'd told her. She'd just been through a horrifying ordeal and she needed time to come to terms with their loss.

But as the days had turned in to weeks without her attitude towards him thawing in the slightest Connor's patience had begun to wear thin. He had called her every day, sometimes more than once, and at first Lilly had taken his calls and repeatedly told him that things were over. Then she had left the calls to her mother and refused to talk to him at all. She had been certain that he would get the message and leave her alone but instead he had turned up at the house again.