Page 126 of A King’s Obsession

She frowned, turning fully toward me.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

I held her gaze, knowing the next words out of my mouth were about to change this whole conversation.

“It means you're my wife.”

She stared at me, her eyebrows pulling together behind those glasses.

“Ezra, what?”

“We married, baby.”

A short, disbelieving laugh escaped her lips as she searched my face for some sign that I was joking. When she didn't find one, she shook her head.

“When the fuck did we get married?”

I rubbed my beard, wishing there was a better way to explain what I'd done. “Remember all that paperwork you signed when we were putting the restaurant together? I had the marriage paperwork mixed in with those contracts. You signed it, and I took care of everything else.”

She blinked a few times, staring at me like I'd lost my motherfucking mind. Her mouth opened, then closed again, and she looked away for a second before turning back toward me.

“Un-fucking-believable.” She let out a sharp laugh, shaking her head. “I cannot believe this shit. Ezra, you could've just asked me!”

“Hell, I know that now.” I shifted my jaw, glancing down at my swollen hand before looking back at her. “But at the time, all I was thinking about was securing what I wanted, and that was you. I wanted you as my wife, Jru. I just went about the shit wrong.”

She pressed her fingers against her forehead, clearly struggling to process what I'd told her. I could practically see the questions running through her head, but before I could offer another explanation, she dropped her hand and glanced toward the hallway.

“You know what? None of that even matters right now.” Her voice was tight with frustration as she adjusted her purse on her shoulder. “This is not the time or the place for this conversation. Ashlynn is in there about to give birth to two babies, and I've already missed so much with her. I need to be there for my friend.”

She started walking, and I took a step after her, my frustration rising at the thought of letting her disappear around another corner.

“Jru, come on. We need to talk about this shit, don't you think?”

She stopped, turning halfway toward me. The look she gave me made it clear she was running out of patience.

“And we will. But not right now, Ezra. I need some space to process everything.”

“Space?” I frowned, staring at her like she'd just told me she was moving to another damn planet. “Baby, you done had six months of space. What the fuck you need, another six? We got some serious shit to figure out.”

She turned toward me completely, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses. For a second, I thought she was about to let me have it again, but she took a breath and adjusted the strap of her purse instead.

“Ezra.” Her voice was firm enough to stop me from saying anything else. “I said this ain't the time or the place. I'm going to be with Ashlynn.”

I started to speak again, but she turned and walked away before I could get another word out.

I stood there watching her disappear around the corner, my jaw tight and my hands planted on my hips. Every instinct I had told me to follow her, to finish the conversation, to figure out how the fuck we were supposed to move forward now that I knew she was carrying my child.

But she'd made herself clear.

And as much as I hated it, I knew chasing her back into Ashlynn's room wasn't going to do anything but make another bad situation worse.

Six months I'd spent looking for that woman. Now I'd finally found her, learned she was carrying my child, and discovered that telling her we were married hadn't fixed a motherfucking thing.

I'd spent my whole life making moves and dealing with the consequences later.

Well, the consequences had just walked away from me wearing glasses and carrying my baby.

CHAPTER 26