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“Brianna, listen to me, because I’m only going to say this once. Stop worrying about everything. I’ve told you a million times you don’t need to work double shifts—or at all—but you do for your independence, and I respect that. But when someone offers to help you, or to buy you something, smile and say thank you. Okay?”

“Kaden, it’s not that simple. I have no money. I can’t just not work and depend on you to support me.”

“No?” he pulled in beside her car and parked. “I told you—we agreed that I’d take care of you and Shiloh. Stop being a pain in the butt and just let me.”

“Kaden, we might be married in name and legal system, but we aren’t emotionally or physically. I can’t allow myself to depend on you when I consciously know you’ll be gone in a year. I can’t allow you to spoil our child and just walk out of her life as if you never existed.”

“I never said I’d walk out of my child’s life.”

“Yeah.” She opened the door, letting a cold breeze in their warm environment.

He watched her enter the house, the door slamming behind her. Her expression said it all. He also didn’t say he’d be in her life either and that’s what hurt her most.