Page 120 of The Husband Contract

“Really, Sebastian?” She rolls her eyes, but then a smile tugs at her lips—and that gives me a frisson of hope. Maybe, just maybe, I’m not going to lose her from my life. It gives me hope that I may have a chance.

“I love you, Willow.” She stares at me, but there’s no response. “The reason I married you was because I had feelings.”

“You gave me a contract telling me the exact opposite,” she says. “You don’t think I remember that?”

“But I never followed through with any of the crazy plans I had. I never did anything to hurt you, aside from keeping you there because I loved you—and I knew it wasn't right. I just hadn’t processed it yet.”

She nods. “I get that. I truly do. It’s just really complicated. All of this is really complicated.”

“Do you love me at all, still? Do I have a chance?”

She bites her lower lip and looks away from me.

“You didn’t say no,” I say.

Her eyes flash to me, and she wrinkles her nose.

“You still didn’t say no.”

“I told you, I don’t lie,” she says with a huff.

Warmth spreads throughout me. So there’s a chance, I think to myself. She still loves me. I still have a chance. A voice in my head whispers that I should tell her now about David, about her parents—but I can’t ruin that little bit of hope. She will hate me even more than I hate myself, and right now she’s the only good thing I have going for me.

“What’s going on with the company?” she says.

“They may or may not be voting to remove me from the board right now,” I say, shrugging.

“What?” Her jaw drops. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s an emergency meeting called for today, and I believe there’s going to be a vote by the board.”

“But I thought you were going to take care of it. I thought?—”

“I don’t care, Willow. You are more important.”

“But that’s your business?—”

“Then whatever’s going to happen will happen. If they don’t trust me because of Sergio and what’s happened, then they don’t trust me. Like I said before, I’m still going to have my billions, and I can start over. You are more important to me. Coming up here to Whispering Haven to talk to you, to figure this out—that’s the most important thing in my life. More important than my family business.” I watch as she swallows hard. She steps from behind the desk and comes to stand next to me. She looks up at me, her blue eyes full of wonder. Her lips twist up into a small smile.

“You put me before your business.”

“I did.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I did.”

“How’s Sergio?” she asks.

“Still young, dumb, and stupid,” I grumble with a shrug. “He’s my brother, and I love him. I don’t want to make any mistakes and I’ll always be there for him—but I’m not going to fight his battles for him anymore.”

“He didn’t even know you were fighting that one,” she says, and I nod.

“He didn’t. I made a mistake, and I promise I realize that.”

“It’s admirable you wanted to help him, to want to exact revenge for the people who hurt him—even though you were mistaken. I understand how you felt.”

“Oh, you do?”