Page 27 of A Montana Fake Marriage (Sagebrush Ranch Sweethearts #1)

Had their relationship been built on something so unstable?

That inflamed sense of dread only grew in his stomach.

He didn’t know if he had the strength to stick up for himself at this moment.

Did he even want to? If one conversation with her father was all it took for her to throw whatever trust she might have had for him out the window, was their relationship even worth saving?

Caleb had never lied to her. He’d never manipulated her. All he’d ever wanted was to help her and keep her safe—from her father and occasionally from herself.

Apparently, she didn’t want the same.

He could tell the very second a sense of cold washed over him.

It was like someone had pushed him out into the cold and closed the door.

Over the last twenty-four hours, he’d gone through so many emotions, he couldn’t be sure if his heart would survive.

He’d been worried for her—so much so that he’d nearly called the police.

When he’d seen her, he’d been torn between yelling at her and wanting to pull her into his arms to ensure she was safe.

Maybe theirs wasn’t a relationship that was destined to survive. At this point, he couldn’t rule out that they were simply too different.

There was no telling how much time passed after his outburst. Apparently, Sammie didn’t have any witty comebacks.

She must have known that she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Money had aways been something that was important to her.

Heck, it was important to him, but he didn’t let it come between them. Not even once.

Caleb blew out a heady breath and took a step back from her. He leaned against the wall of the horse stall and folded his arms, choosing to keep his eyes on the straw at their feet. “Maybe we jumped into this relationship too quickly.”

He sensed more than witnessed her stiffen before him. She didn’t reach out. She didn’t even try to argue with him.

That hurt.

Without looking up at her, he continued.

“I really care about you Sammie. I thought…” He shook his head.

He wanted to tell her he thought he’d loved her.

But he didn’t want to hurt her like he was hurting.

The pain was agonizing as it tore through him like a twister ripping everything up in its path.

“You will always be my best friend.” This time he glanced up at her, surprised to see her eyes shining and a tear dragging down her cheek. “What do you want me to do?”

A thousand scenarios ran through his head. What if she said she wanted them to stay together? Was he so far gone that he would believe her?

“I think it would be a good idea to sign a post nuptial agreement.” Her voice was a whisper, but in his head, it thundered, a storm forming. Caleb hadn’t expected that request.

“A post-nup?” he rasped.

She nodded.

“You want to get divorced.” His voice was flat, unfeeling. That was the answer he’d still been praying she wouldn’t give him.

If he had to walk out of that stall in this exact second, he wasn’t sure he could. His legs had lost all feeling. She’d knocked the vitality from his body with her request.

“I don’t?—”

Caleb waved a hand and shook his head. “Makes sense. Perhaps we’ve both been swept up in something we weren’t prepared for.

What did we expect?” He forced a smile that tore at his mental state even more.

“We’ve been staying in the same room for a year.

We were bound to mistake our friendship for feelings of something more. ”

He hadn’t. Deep down, he knew he’d fallen for her. Hard.

Caleb couldn’t think of one thing that he had wanted more in his life than to have a future with the girl in front of him. He’d been able to see clearly what that could be for him. And she’d torn it away from him.

But he cared for her too much to keep her trapped in any way. Her father had done that to her. He’d tried to control her from the second she was born, and Caleb refused to be someone who did the same. If she wanted her freedom, he’d give it to her.

That was what she’d wanted from the beginning, after all.

“If you want me to sign that post-nup, we can have the lawyers draw one up. It’ll be easy enough.”

Confusion mingled with relief and something else he couldn’t read as she took a step toward him. “Really?”

He moved away from her, refusing to let her touch him, and he nodded. “Sure. Then, when you have your inheritance, I’ll make sure we have the divorce papers ready. Painless like we’d always planned.”

“But Caleb?—”

He couldn’t stand there and listen to her for another second. His soul had been ripped from his body, leaving his heart frayed and bleeding. Spinning away from her, he charged out of the stall and toward the entrance of the barn.

Money.

That’s what this whole thing had always been about.

The money she wanted or needed. Things. The worst thing was that he couldn’t even blame her.

He knew the feeling of hopelessness and worrying about the stability of an unknown future.

His grandfather had lost a great deal. His parents had sacrificed so much.

It didn’t matter that he had offered to take care of her when the money he had to his name was only a drop in the bucket compared to what she’d get.

Sammie wanted to be independent, and that meant having something to call her own.

She’d get her inheritance, and then they’d part ways.