Page 96 of My Husband’s New Fiancée

“Tell me you don’t despise me. Tell me you don’t hate me.”

The thought that she could hate me for what happened with Bianca terrifies me.

She turns toward the window before answering without looking at me.

“I don’t hate you. I never could. But...” Her breathing falters. “I resent you so much.”

I absorb the blow.

“I resent myself too. If I could go back, I’d erase those two years without you without a second thought.”

Her breathing grows uneven.

She’s struggling to steady herself.

“The thought of leaving you in her hands was unbearable. But I had nothing. No proof. Nothing except my word against hers.”

I understand her helplessness.

Her guilt.

“Would you even have believed me?” she whispers. “A woman returning from nowhere... accusing the woman you were about to marry?”

I close my eyes briefly.

She truly believes I could’ve doubted her.

The thought makes me sick.

“Then I heard about the fundraising round and the license transfer.”

She locks eyes with me.

“That’s when I understood. If I did nothing, they were going to win. And without realizing it, they made their first mistake.”

She holds my gaze.

“They gave me a way to fight back.”

I nod slowly.

“And you did. You stopped the fundraising deal and everything that would’ve come with it.”

A flicker of pride crosses her expression.

Fuck, what a woman.

But even while admiring her, I don’t overlook the rest of what she revealed.

“You still get migraines?”

“They’re less frequent now than at the beginning... At first, I had several a week. Now it’s once or twice a month.”

“And your memory?”

“I recovered most of it. But sometimes more still come back in flashes, without warning. Sometimes it’s a word or a smell that triggers them. Sometimes it’s an emotional reaction.”

My thumb strokes her palm.