Page 72 of Checkmate
Damn him for still having a hold on her heart.
“Don’t leave again, Erica,” Alex said, taking a step towards her. “I’ve missed you.”
Liar.
“I’ve been so lost without you.” He reached for her hand, prompting her to take a step back.
Fucking liar.
“Please, Erica. Don’t be like that. You’re all I’ve thought about. Please. Just come here.”
Fucking lying, cheating bastard.
“What are we even doing, Alex?” She asked, ignoring his attempts to take her hand. “I mean, what is the point?”
“I don’t understand what—”
“Why are we still married?” She spat. Finally, he stopped advancing on her, his hand falling to his side as his grip on the tumbler loosened.
“Because we love each other,” he murmured. “At least I love you. Don’t… don’t you love me, Erica?”
“An impossible amount,” she said, meaning every word. “But what does that matter when you don’t trust me?”
Swallowing past a lump in her throat, Erica kept her gaze on Alex as she waited for an answer. Any answer.
She wanted him to take her in his arms, and yet never touch her again. Tell her he loved her, and it was all lies, and yet get on his knees and beg for forgiveness.
Most of all, she wanted him to be the man she fell in love with instead of the coward stood before her.
“Erica, I trust you,” he said, taking two long strides towards her and taking her hand before she could stop him. “I know I’ve been unbearable the past few weeks, but it drives me crazy the thought of any guy getting a part of you I don’t.”
She should have pulled away immediately, but curiosity makes fools of us all.
“What do you mean a part of me you don’t?”
“Well, like at the party. Tucked away in a corner, laughing harder than I’ve ever heard you with a man you barely know.
And now, less than two months later, you’re calling that same guy your business partner. What steps did I miss? How have the two of you become so entangled in each other’s lives?”
Unlike previously, when Alex demanded answers to scenarios he had completely made up in his head, he was trying to understand now, listening attentively.
If Erica was as nice as most people believed her to be, she would have softened the blow somewhat. But when presented with an opportunity to hurt the man who had caused her so much pain, she was going to take it with both hands.
“I don’t know, Alex. Sometimes people are just meant to be in your life.”
She relished the agony in his eyes, ignoring the bubbling of guilt in the pit of her stomach. Serves him right. He deserved every second of that pain and then some.
“You think he’s meant to be in your life?”
Twist that knife, Erica.
“I know he’s meant to be in my life.”
Alex took a step back, sinking onto the sofa as he stared blankly ahead. “In what capacity?”
He sounded like a broken man. A broken man who still did not fucking trust her.
“I haven’t figured that out yet,” she said, choosing her words carefully.
