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Grace walked away towards the door, where she stopped and looked back at Caz before she said, “We should get a divorce.”

Chapter Forty-Two

Caz left it a moment before she followed Grace out of the room and took the stairs two at a time. There was the sound of movement in their bedroom and she hovered outside trying to decide what her next move should be.

Grace was upset, obviously. They both were, but she couldn’t just give up and let Grace make decisions for them both, decisions she felt sure they’d both regret if they went through with it.

Grasping the handle to the door, she pushed it open and stepped inside. Grace was moving all of Caz’s things from drawers and shelves. It was all stacked neatly on the bed.

“We’re not getting divorced, Grace.”

Without stopping what she was doing or looking at her, Grace said, “I think it’s for the best.”

“You’re not thinking straight, and you don’t get to think for me—that’s not fair.”

“You can meet someone who can give you what you want,” she said, still not stopping what she was doing, or looking at Caz at all.

“I already have that,” Caz replied. She chewed her thumbnail as she watched the scene in front of her, her stomach roiling and she felt nausea building. This wasn’t the way things ended between them.

“It was never going to work, let’s face it, Caz.” Grace finally looked at her. She held one of Caz’s T-shirts in her hand for a moment before she slowly added it to the pile. “Especially now, if you have…feelings. It’s for the best.”

“Bullshit.” The outburst caught them both by surprise. “Sorry, I just—I’m not leaving,” Caz said with more firmness to her words. “There’s more to us than that.”

“Really? Like what? We can still be friends, Caz. In fact, it will be like nothing ever happened.”

“That’s ridiculous and so far from the reality of—”

“Of what?”

“Us…me and you. How we feel about each other.”

Grace sighed. “You’re my best friend and always will be.”

“Tell me you don’t feel it.”

“Feel what?”

Caz rolled her eyes and sighed. “Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you.” She straightened up—chin out, chest forward. “Tell me you don’t feel the same way.”

Grace stared at her, the realisation of what Caz was asking now dawned on her and played out on her face.

“I can’t have this conversation with you,” Grace said, her voice shaking as she turned her back and continued with what she was doing.

Caz let her.

She watched every move until there was nothing of Caz’s left off the pile. Stepping forward, Caz reached down and scooped it all up in her arms.

“I’ll sleep in the other room if that’s what you want, but we are having this conversation when you’re ready.”

Pressing her lips together, Grace remained silent and stubbornly refused to engage further, but their eyes locked and held until Caz twisted away and walked out of the room and down the hall.

Once inside what was now the spare room, she dropped everything onto the bed and let out a long, deep sigh.

“I’ll show you, Grace Hart.” She flopped down onto the mattress that she hadn’t slept on for months. “You love me, I know it,” she whispered to herself. “I know it.”

It took just a few minutes to put her things away and make the bed up. She didn’t need to glance at her watch to know that it was time for dinner. Her stomach told her it was with its constant rumbling. She wasn’t even sure if she could eat, but she’d try. Life had to resume, didn’t it?

Grace was still in her room. That much was clear by the silence in the rest of the house.