Regretting The Wife He Threw Away

"That was all in the past."

Briony opened her eyes and met his gaze, her expression calm and steady. "After

I came back from Florence, I made up my mind to leave you. Everything that happened after just slowly strangled any last bit of feeling I had left for you."

With every word, Stewart's eyes seemed to lose their light, growing dimmer by the second.

"Stewart, the fact that I loved you-during those five years of our secret marriage —it was bittersweet. But I don't regret it. I cherished that love more than anything. But then, again and again, you hurt me, trampled on me, all for Florence and for Irwin. Eventually, I started to feel like loving you was pathetic..."

"I began to hate myself for being so weak. I started to hate the words 'I love you'..."

"Then, I truly decided to leave you. I made the choice to stop loving you. It wasn't easy. I struggled. I even thought about not keeping the baby..."

"Stewart, you'll never understand just how cold the wind is in Pearbrook."

"You'll never know what it feels like to walk into an operating room three times."

"And you'll never, ever know how much I hated myself the moment I found out our son was gone. I hated myself, Stewart-I hated that I ever loved you at all!"

A sharp ache twisted in Stewart's chest.

He stared at Briony, lost for words, not knowing how to respond.

"Stewart, you're the one who taught me what it means for love to turn into hate. And now you have the nerve to tell me you don't understand how we ended up like this?"

As she spoke, Briony let out a bitter laugh.

tears

to rip your heart out just to see if it's really as black as

sat on the sofa,

finally spoke, resigned. "If you hate me, I accept that. But

I made myself clear enough? We're over. It's over. Let me go! Just let me

you-one week." Stewart stood and walked

any closer, backing up

grabbing her wrist and yanking her to him. "Stewart, let

metal chain at her ankle scraped against the

week," Stewart said, his voice low. "Let's just

"You're insane!"

with rage, staring daggers at him. "Stewart, if you're sick, go see a doctor. I can't

"Yes, you can."

his grip on her wrist, refusing to let her

closed around the back of her neck, pulling her close until

Stewart's voice was hoarse, tinged with

pretend, just give me

chill ran down Briony's

eyes and felt a cold

gut.

acting normal

losing

If that was true-

was in real danger