Chapter 0032
“Aria…”
+25 BONUS
“You don’t love me, Lucian,” Aria said, looking straight into my eyes. “Not enough. Maybe not at all. Without love, even if we’d had intimacy as often as physically possible, I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant.”
“How do you know this is true?” I asked. “We could consulta Healer.”
“I had medical training.”
“That’s not the same thing as being a Healer. If we went to Dr. A-”
“Dr. A would tell you what I just said. But you can ask her if you’d like. Why trust the woman about to be your ex- wife?”
“This isn’t about trust,” I said. “I just want to be sure. There has to be a way for you to be able to conceive.”
“There isn’t. Not by you,” Aria replied in the kind of straightforward way that sent a knife through my gut. I was responsible for Aria’s pain.
I was good at hurting others, it seemed. First Sheila, now Ana
“But even if there was a way,” Aria continued, “I wouldn’t seek it out.”
“Why?”
Subtlety, she touched her stomach, perhaps thinking of the child that could have been.
“Any child I bear deserves to be surrounded by love,” I said. “I wouldn’t teach them that a loveless marriage is a happy one. When it isn’t. I’ve suffered these past three years, Lucian. I’ve hid it well, I suppose, or maybe you never cared to look too closely. But I’m done now. With this. With you.”
She turned away from me, showing me her back.
I was losing her.
No, I already lost her…
I stepped closer to her. “Aria, please. We can talk about this…”
“There’s nothing left to say,” she said, and I could have sworn I heard her voice crack. She cleared her throat. Then, when she spoke again, her voice was stronger. “Besides, Shella is waiting for you.”
She was, but… damn it! What did that matter at a time like this? I’d told Sheila I’d be home early, but there was still time to fix things with Aria. There had to be time.
I wasn’t a failure. I wasn’t going to let this marriage fall apart.
Aria couldn’t leave me.
If what she’d said was true though… If she’d been unable to conceive because of my inability to feel things…
Gods, maybe I was the failure.
Guilt sliced through me so painfully I felt as if I might have been physically stabbed.
“Aria. Sheila and 1-”
“Don’t lie to me, Lucian. Not anymore. I didn’t believe what you said before, about not being in a romantic
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relationship, but now I have proof”
Phat proof?” There couldn’t be proof of a relationship that didn’t exist.
“It doesn’t matter. Don’t you see?” Swiveling on her feet, she faced me again. Tears hung in her eyes, making them spride in the starlight, but those stubbom tears did not fall. Strong as she was, she held them back. “I’m divorcing you, Lucian. That’s what I want. Accept it. Please. Sign the paperwork and let me go.
“Don’t let her go…” Max whined in my mind.
“You never wanted me when we were together,” she said. “Why are you being so difficult now?”
I wished I had an answer that would satisfy her. Something that would change everything.
Instead, I could only stare and pray she could read my thoughts – that she could see I genuinely liked having her around. Even if it wasn’t love, it was something. She made my home better, she was good with the maids. She made sure I had my tea in the office.
She looked out for me.
Now she was leaving
“Aria
“Let me go,” she said again, and a single tear fell down her cheek.
