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I take a deep breath as Kylie leads us to her car. Snatching the keys from her hands, I open the passenger door for her. She glares at me but gets in anyway.
“You don’t know how to get to my house,” she points out.
“I do not. But you can tell me how to get there. Plus, you deserve to be a passenger princess for a little while.”
In more ways than I’m willing to say out loud at the moment.
CHAPTER 6
Kylie
The large black suitcase is spread open across the bed. Its empty cavities are mocking me.
Pathetic. Laughingstock. Failure.
I never wanted a divorce. I thought Chris and I could work through any issue if we both put in the necessary effort.
But both of us have to want it, and it seems like only one of us actually does.
I pile clothes into the suitcase until there’s no more room. I don’t plan on coming back here anytime soon, so the few things left are things that either never fit me—even before the baby—or stuff Chris bought that I hated. He always wanted me to dress sexier than I preferred. He liked it when I wore short, tight dresses. It made me feel cheap when he pushed me to wear those outfits. I’m not the smallest girl out there, and while I’m happy with my body, Chris never seemed to be.
Shaking off that train of thought, I move on to the bathroom. All my toiletries fit into a couple of travel bags that I shove into the suitcase. I make sure to leave out the stuff I need for the road trip before I head into Peanut’s room.
That’s when the significance of what I’m doing finally hits me. Tears fill my eyes as I take in the room I painstakingly designed.
I painted a hot air balloon scene on one wall, and the rest are sky blue. The crib was a pain in the ass to put together, but I did it by myself. The dresser and changing table are on the other side of the room, and while they were slightly easier than the crib, I still had to put them together. Everything was ready to go for Peanut’s arrival, and now I’m leaving it all behind.
“Ladybug?” Gray’s soft voice has me glancing up from the rocking chair where I’m holding the little stuffed bunny I’d bought. The second he sees my face, he kneels on the floor in front of me. “I’m so, so sorry.”
The fact that I don’t even have to explain why I’m sad is something I’ll have to explore when I’m not so emotional.
“I was so excited to see Peanut in here. I put my whole self into making their room perfect. How can I leave it?”
Gray doesn’t respond. There isn’t anything he could say to make this easier on me. He grips my hands, kissing my knuckles as a show of support. Isn’t it sad that I’ve gotten more help from him during this pregnancy than my own husband?
“What kind of woman accepts such blatant disrespect for so long?” I whisper.
Gray seems to understand my train of thought. “One who loves more fiercely than the asshole deserves. You’re an incredible woman, Ladybug. I’d be the proudest man on the planet if I had you by my side.”
I give Gray a sad smile. “Thanks for saying that.”
A look I can’t interpret crosses his face before he stands. “What do you want me to pack?”
Staying in the rocking chair, I direct Grayson on what to put in the open suitcase in the middle of the floor. He fills it with all the clothes I’ve amassed over the last month. It was only recently that I felt confident enough to buy anything. Gray puts blankets and toys into another bag, and before I know it, my life is packed into my car.
I look around my house for a minute. I’d worked so hard to make this place feel like a home. Yet as I take it in, I’m not sad to leave it. The only room in this house that mattered to me was Peanut’s.
My gaze snags on Chris’s tablet sitting at the charging station in the mudroom.
I’m unlocking it when Grayson comes in through the garage door. “Are you ready?”
“Almost. I want to check something first.” I search the tablet until my stomach is churning with bile.
“What is it?” Gray asks.
I turn the screen toward him so he can see the messages between Chris and his lawyer buddies. It’s a constant stream of degradation of the women in their lives, including nude images of their wives, mistresses, and any woman in between.
Fury explodes across Grayson’s eyes. “Did he send images of you?”
