Page 65 of Perdition

Truth hurt.

She dropped her hand from his arm and her gaze from his face. Recentering.

“Honestly, I have no idea what was going on in your head, but that is what I believe happened, yes,” she replied.

He pinched his lips together thoughtfully, his gaze going hazy.

What was he thinking?

The next moment revealed the answer.

“You’re right.”

Stunned. Floored. Flabbergasted.

This definitely wasn’t Frost the MC prez sitting across from her—that man never admitted weakness.

She recovered quickly. “I know I am,” she declared, cocking her head imperiously. “But I want you to give me more than that, Mads.”

At his name, his gaze lifted to hers, sharpening.

“I admit I lost myself. The kids didn’t need me anymore, you didn’t need me anymore, and the club had its president, but things were so easy, after all the work that went into building it, I felt like I was cruising…listless. Like a soldier without orders. A sailor without a compass. Ya know?”

Lord, the vulnerability in her expression, the pain in his voice…it nearly undid her. But then she remembered all he’d said anddidn’tsay that morning in the clubhouse with Sarah, and she shored up her defenses.

She refused to let him off easily, because she’d been dealing with all the hard on her own for too long.

It was time for Frost to have a ‘come to Jesus moment’…and she’d help them meet.

“Are you sure that listlessness wasn’t about you feeling like you missed out on something, like a different life; the life you could have had it you hadn’t settled at twenty-one, and instead left home to become something more than a young husband and father?”

At that, Frost shot to his feet, his body shaking, his face contorted in rage.

“No!” he growled. “Not in a million fucking years, Emily.” He cursed. “And the fact you think that about me….” He shook his head slowly, a look of devastation etching lines into his face. “You really think that?”

Did she?

“I…I don’t know, Frost. But what do you expect me to think when the moment the kids are gone and I stop being the house wifey, you start pulling away? I thought that you were…I don’t know…finally realizing you were free. The kids were grown, Ihad my business, you didn’t have to protect or provide for us, you could shake off the responsibility of the family you were burdened with when you were too young to know there were better choices.”

“You are the only choice, Emily!” he cried, his voice breaking.

He reached for her, pulling her against his chest, to wrap his arms around her.

…you have options….

Again, Sarah’s voice from that office rendezvous—and Frost’s grunt of acknowledgement, carried on through her mind.

“I might have been then, Frost,” she began, “but I’m not now.”

He jerked as if struck, cursing under his breath.

“What happened with Sarah?—”

“Is a symptom of what’s wrong between us, Frost. This marriage is sick, and I am so tired of being the only one who can see just how sick it is.”

He groaned, pressing his forehead against the top of her head. “I can see it…now. And I want to fix things, Em.”

Suddenly, she was too tired to keep the last few bricks in her walls from crumbling to the ground.