Chapter Twenty-One

LUKAS HAD A LONG TALK with David while spending time with his son in the newly built playground next to the rooftop garden of his office building. David had mostly chuckled and laughed in response, but by the time an hour had passed, just staring into the boy's green eyes made him unable to hide from the truth any longer.

I love her.

He had been fighting his feelings from the first day he met Betsy.

I love her.

But this time, he was done denying it.

I love her.

He gave Julie the rest of the day off, and his heart started to pound as he headed back to his office. David had already dozed off, and he could see his employees struggling to hide their smiles at the sight of his sleeping son drooling on his shoulder.

Lukas entered his office and was surprised to find Betsy missing. He checked his phone but she hadn't sent him any messages either. After carefully setting their son down on his travel cot, Lukas checked the en-suite, and it was only when he also found this empty that his chest started to tighten...in fear.

Instinct had him walking to his desk, and Lukas' entire world came crashing down when he saw his drawer open, and the contract he had signed with Charlotte on the carpet.

No. God. No.

It was like having the rug pulled out from under him, and Lukas collapsed in his seat. He knew she would come back. It was only a matter of time before she did. David was still with him, and not even the most cruel of heartbreak would keep Betsy away from her son.

But as to what would happen after she came back?

"Help me, God."

It was only when the words were out did he even realize what he was saying.

And asking for.

Lukas had never prayed in his entire life. His parents had died too early to teach him anything, and by the time he realized what prayers were, he felt as if it was too late to change his mind about it.

Until now.

She had always told him that one only had to believe, and so this time he believed.

I'm begging You, God.

"I'm begging You."

The words tore out of his soul and pierced the tense air of silence with the rawness of his emotions.

"Please."

Lukas didn't know why it mattered so much to say the words out loud. He just knew he had to.

"Please give me another chance with her," he rasped out, "and I swear I will love her until the day I die."

And when he opened his eyes, she was there.

But she was crying, and his heart sank.

Another thing Betsy had once told him was how God didn't answer prayers that asked for the wrong things, and maybe...

Just maybe, it was time for him to accept that he was wrong with her, and if he really loved her, then he had to have the strength to let her go.

Betsy could only cry harder as she watched her husband stride towards her.

"I'm sorry," Lukas said rawly. "I'm so damn sorry. I should have told you the truth from the beginning."

"Yes," she sobbed. "You should have. So why didn't you?"

"I thought you knew about my agreement with Charlotte. By the time it became obvious you had no clue at all, I didn't know how to tell you the truth. I didn't want to risk hurting you."

He waited for her to say something, but all his wife did was stare at him as her tears flowed endlessly down her cheeks.

"When you kept talking about your future husband, and I knew that you didn't know I was that man, I ended up being jealous of myself," Lukas revealed unsteadily. "I wanted you to choose me and not him, and so I found myself still unable to tell you the truth."

"I s-see..."

He tried to reach for her hands, but the way she stumbled back to avoid his touch filled him with desperation.

"Betsy—-"

"I'm s-sorry," she said brokenly. "I'm just...I d-don't know w-what to think. And I c-can't seem to s-stop crying."

Every word she choked out slashed at him, and when he saw his wife fall to her knees as she broke down in sobs—-

It was over.

And he, too, slowly fell to his knees.

If he truly loved her, he had to stop hurting her.

Betsy couldn't remember hurting this much in all of her life. She wasn't angry, not even with Charlotte, whose contracts had explicitly stated that the other woman had the right to withhold certain information as she saw fit.

But Charlotte was Charlotte, and she knew the other woman meant well.

Her husband, though...

It just hurt, to know that he had first wanted someone else. It tempted her to wallow in self-pity and lash out in her desire to hurt him back. But even with all of these emotions destroying her from within, none of it was enough to make Betsy blind to her husband's own pain.

He looked as if he had lost everything that mattered, and he was looking at her as if she was already dead.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked jerkily.

"It doesn't matter."

But the way he said it made her realize that it did matter.

"Tell me," she heard herself say. "Please."

A part of him wanted to say 'no'. What good would it do to say anything at this point? But because he loved her, and he knew he had hurt her too damn much to deny her anything—-

"It's because I know," Lukas said hollowly.

"Know w-what?"

"That this is likely the last time I'll be looking at you as my wife."

Betsy could barely breathe upon hearing her husband's words.

God.

God.

Oh God.

"You think I'm going to leave you," she whispered.

"How could you not?"

Oh, this man.

It killed her to hear the way agony had ravaged his voice, and even though she, too, had pieces of her heart that had yet to heal, how could he think that this was it for them?

"You wanted to marry Charlotte to protect your pride," Betsy pointed out shakily. "But you chose to marry me even if it would cost you your pride...and it did. The secret you wanted to keep...the whole world knows about it now, but you didn't c-care. All you cared about was h-how I felt. So y-you tell me, husband. How could I not stay knowing that?"

Lukas could only stare at his wife. Was she saying what he thought she was saying? Was she truly willing to give him another chance?

"And when I think about everything that's happened and everything you did," Betsy continued in a voice that still trembled with pain, "I can't believe I've been so stupid and blind that it's taken me this long to hear what you've been saying all this time without the—-"

Lukas hauled his wife into his arms, and this time she molded her body against his like they were two pieces that were meant to be one.

"I'll give you the words now if you still want it," Lukas said in a voice that was not quite steady.

A teary laugh slipped past her lips. "I will always want it."

"Then I'll say it all the time," Lukas vowed. "I love you, Betsy. I love you. And I will love you and our son until the day I die."