Page 100 of Penny & Royce

His heart wasn’t strong enough for this. He couldn’t see her in so much pain. “Don’t you get it? I told you I’m in this. But I’m starting to understand that loving you doesn’t mean I get to stand here and insist until you agree with me.”

Her eyes flicked to his.

“You don’t see what I see,” he said, his own tears blurring his vision.

“What’s that?” she rasped.

“Our future.”

In that same moment, loud voices erupted from just outside her office. The security guard opened the door but stopped short when Penny shook her head.

The flicker of hope Royce was offered got swiftly snuffed out when Penny turned to him with tears still in her eyes.

“Our future needs to include family,” she said softly. “They’re a big part of the larger picture. Maybe even part of what God is asking us to face.”

His face screwed up in pain. “I’ve already told you. You’re my family now.”

Penny placed a hand to his cheek, and he leaned into it before he could stop himself.

“Maybe if things had been different, we could have worked this out. Trust me, Royce. It hurts, but this is for the best. Families shouldn’t be torn apart because we want something they can’t accept. And my family is important to me, as I’m sure yours still is, if you’d only admit it.”

Royce opened his mouth to argue, but his voice died in his throat.

She still wasn’t in the right frame of mind to hear him.

Or maybe he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to hear her.

Slowly, he rose to his feet. As much as it made him sick to his stomach, he forced out his next statement.

“I don’t want to be the reason you’re unhappy.” He gestured toward her, pain slicing through him all over again. “And I don’t want to be the reason you keep making yourself sick.”

She closed her eyes, and tears spilled down her cheeks once more.

“So I’ll give you this.” His voice broke. “The next time you tell me no, I’ll listen. But I want you to take a little more time to be sure this is what you want.”

Her eyes snapped open and met his, but she didn’t speak.

“No matter how much it hurts, I’ll listen. I’ll walk away. For you.”

Then before he could go back on his offer, he moved toward the door, past the security guard, and out of the building.

Only once he was in his truck did he allow himself to break.

25

PENNY

Something happened in Penny’s brain moments after Royce left.

It was like everything went quiet and loud all at once. She could feel his loss even though they were technically still married.

And what had she expected?

He couldn’t fight for her forever. She didn’t want him to. And yet she had never felt more alone in her life than she did now.

She went through the rest of the day in a complete daze.

Nothing Shelly said seemed to register, and only after her secretary had to repeat herself for the dozenth time did Penny finally listen and go home.