Page 50 of The Rancher Married the Wrong Sister (Billionaires of Evergreen, Texas #13)

“LET ME HELP YOU.”

Gavine’s words, spoken in an uneven tone, catch me off guard, and all I can do is stare in a daze as he picks my scattered clothes from the hardwood floor, each piece a reminder of how completely I’d surrendered to him just hours ago.

“Raise your arms, please.”

I’m unable to meet his gaze even as I do as he asks, mostly out of numbness and resignation. Even I know I’m not okay. So much so that I need help getting dressed. It’s just ironic that the person so carefully assisting me now is also the same person who’s just crushed my heart to pieces.

The silk sheets fall to the floor with a whisper when he steps back. I glance down, and somehow, for reasons I don’t even understand...

It’s seeing that I’m dressed now, and remembering that I was naked earlier when Jessica saw us...

I just don’t know why, but I start crying again.

“I’m sorry, Wednesday.”

The hoarseness of his voice underscores his pain, and it hurts even more to hear this...because I don’t know what to think about it.

Does he feel bad that Jessica was telling the truth, but he hadn’t meant for me to learn about it this way? Had he only been making do with me all this time?

I’m just so tired.

So, so tired.

And before I even realize what I’m saying, my thoughts have already tumbled out in whispered words.

“I want to leave—”

But his response, albeit still hoarsely voiced, is immediate.

“No.”

And so my head jerks up because I just can’t believe he’s stopping me from leaving.

“Why?” I choke out. “I already know the truth—”

“How could you,” he grates out, “when I didn’t even know the truth until this morning?”

I stumble back the moment I realize he’s about to reach for me, but either I’m too slow or he’s too fast—

No .

His hands grip my shoulders, his fingers pressing into my flesh with desperate intensity.

“It’s true...what Jessica said,” he admits in jerky words. “I married you, thinking it would be enough to lure your sister back—”

“Well, now she’s back—”

“But she’s no longer what I want.”

I shake my head. “You’re just guilty—”

“I am guilty,” Gavine acknowledges roughly, “but not about that. I found out something about Jessica early on in our marriage that made me realize she’s never going to come back for you...”

He’s talking about my adoption...

“I realized there was no point keeping you captive. And that’s why I resolved earlier to tell you our marriage was over, and that I was going to let you go.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“That’s what I asked myself every day...and it was only this morning—”

“When you saw Jessica—”

“No, darling.”

I try pulling away as soon as he cups my face, but he’s not letting go, and it’s making me cry again. “Stop this—”

“If she hadn’t arrived, I would have told you that I finally figured out why I couldn’t let you go—”

“Stop it,” I say brokenly. “Just please stop messing me up—”

Dark eyes lock with mine, and sobs rock my body as he says the words I never thought I’d hear from him.

“And it’s because I’ve fallen in love with you.”

As soon as he says it, something in me...breaks.

And I find myself taking him completely by surprise as I shove past him and run out of the room.

I’m sorry, God, I’m sorry.

I’ve started reading the Bible long enough to know that a broken marriage isn’t what He wants, but I just...I just...

I’m so sorry, Father, for being so weak.

I run as fast as I can, running faster than I’ve ever run, and I can’t even find it in myself to care at the way everyone’s stopped working to stare at me.

The moment I throw the French doors open, nature itself seems to mirror the chaos in my heart.

Torrential rain crashes down from the charcoal sky like the very heavens are weeping, transforming the sprawling ranch into a war zone of mud and fury.

Wind howls across the open land, bending trees nearly horizontal and turning every raindrop into a stinging missile.

But I don’t care.

I plunge into the maelstrom, my bare feet slipping and sliding in the churning mud that sucks at my ankles with every desperate step.

The storm swallows my sobs, my labored breathing, the sound of my heart breaking over and over again.

Water streams down my face, rain mixing with tears until I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.

I don’t even know where I’m going, all I know is that I have to get away from him—

Nooo!

But once again, he catches up to me, and a sob tears out of my throat as his hands lock around my waist. Through the driving rain, I can see ranch hands emerging from barns and outbuildings, drawn by the spectacle.

Staff members press against windows of the main house, their faces pale against the glass.

Everyone watching as their boss pursues his fleeing wife through the storm like something out of a gothic novel.

He manages to spin me around despite my struggles, cupping my face, forcing me to meet his gaze past the tears and the rain that plasters his dark hair to his forehead.

“Don’t leave me, please.”

And then he does something that I never thought he’d do.

“Please, Wednesday, I’m begging you.”

This proud, proud man before me...actually crashes down to his knees in the mud like he doesn’t care about all the rain and all the people watching us.

The impact sends up a splash of muddy water, staining his jeans, his white shirt now transparent and clinging to his chest. He looks nothing like the powerful and ruthless billionaire rancher he’s always been.

..and everything like a man who’s lost everything that matters.

“S-Stop this!”

But it’s as if he doesn’t hear me.

“I love you,” he says raggedly, having to raise his voice over the wind. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize how I feel about you. And I know I don’t deserve a second chance—”

Oh, how I wish I was the type of person to be vindictive, just so I could say NO.

No, you don’t!

You absolutely don’t after how much you’ve hurt me again and again.

“But I’m asking for it anyway because I’m your husband, and you’re my wife, and I know now...that means something to both of us. So please...”

I want to cover my ears so I’d stop hearing his words.

I want to tell him that he’s asking for the impossible.

Or if he really wants me back then first I want him to earn my forgiveness and make him pay.

Oh, there are so many things I want to do to him and against him, with my mind still reeling from the poisonous words that Jessica threw my way—

You married her to lure me back. You thought I’d come back to save her. You used the prenup as bait.

And my heart still broken because all of them, dear God...

All of them were true.

He never wanted me!

He never wanted to marry me!

Because he’s always wanted Jessica, not me.

“Please, Wednesday. I’m begging you. Please let me love you.”

But as my lips part to refuse him, I remember...

Philippians 4:13.

The first time I read it, I thought the Father was telling me to do something.

But now I realize...

His words...

Those words could also give me the power not to do anything.

To forgive like He’s forgiven me endlessly.

To love like He’s loved me unconditionally.

And when I look at Gavine again—

All I can suddenly remember is all the times that he had tried to push me away for my own good—

Don’t imagine this means anything between us. You’re just here because your sister thought she could take the money and run.

I remember all the times he tried to be cruel to keep me from hurting even more, like the time he asked me why I was so kind to him when he was only giving me scraps.

I remember all these things, and a wobbly laugh escapes me because as misguided as he was all those times—

It was true.

He didn’t know it then.

But he’d fallen in love with me already, and the moment I realize this—

The truth shall set you free.

Gavine falls back into the mud-soaked ground as I throw myself at him, but he doesn’t notice, his dark eyes only on me, his expression taut with tension.

“Wednesday?”

Oh, my love.

Now that truth has opened my eyes, I can’t believe how much pain has blinded me, and how his gaze has been shining with so much love for me all this time.

“I f-forgive you...”

I haven’t even finished talking when his own eyes brighten with desperate hope, and oh, my heart...

It just aches more and more. It doesn’t give me pleasure at all that I’ve driven him to this point.

“I love you,” I choke out. “I love you so, so—”

I can’t say anything else, with Gavine pulling my face down, his mouth covering mine in a kiss so deep that it’s not just our hearts that meet but also our souls. Our futures, our everything.

“I love you,” he says hoarsely against my lips. “I love you, Wednesday Launcelot.”

And then he sets me away, asking, “Will you do me the honor of marrying me again—”

Yes, I end up crying again.

“And this time be my wife for all the right reasons?”