And Luke asked me, “Are you leaving?”
I knelt in front of him, tears streaming down my face.
“I don’t want to.”
“Then don’t.”
“It’s not that simple, sweetheart.”
He wrapped his arms around my neck.
“You said you’d stay.”
“I know.”
“You promised.”
I held him and broke.
That night, Adrian found me packing.
“What are you doing?”
“What the court told me to do.”
“Nia—”
“I can’t stay, Adrian. If I do, she’ll use it against you. She’ll take them.”
“She’s going to try anyway.”
“Not if I’m gone.”
He crossed the room in three strides and grabbed my hands.
“I need you.”
“You need your sons more.”
“They need you.”
“They need their father.”
His voice cracked.
“I can’t do this without you.”
I looked up at him, this man who’d given me everything, who’d saved my sister, who’d let me into his life when he had every reason not to.
And I kissed him.
It was desperate and broken and full of everything we couldn’t say.
When I pulled back, he was crying.
“Stay,” he whispered.
“I can’t.”
