“She was stationed at Camp Leatherhead with us. That’s where they met.”
“What…what are you saying?” I ask. “Are you saying that while my husband was stationed in another country, fighting a war, that he was…he was cheating on me?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
I shake my head because I just don’t believe it. “If Adam did that…it was a mistake. A one-time mistake when he was upset or drunk.”
“He loved her, Charlotte. It wasn’t a mistake. He was trying to figure out who he should be with — you, his wife, or the other woman he loved and his son.”
“That’s impossible!” I shout while bracing my palms on the dresser. “He would’ve told me. Adam was honest to a fault! He even told me when he hated my haircuts or the outfit I was wearing.”
“He didn’t want to hurt you,” Roman says. “I didn’t either, but you deserve to know so that you can move on.”
“You hurt me so that I could move on,” I mutter. “How could you? How can you stand there and say you care about me when you knew this all along and didn’t tell me, not until I was ready to leave today?”
“I am not the bad guy here,” Roman grits out. “You don’t get to put this shit on me just because Adam died and I’m still alive.”
“I-I need to go,” I say as I quickly finish dressing and shove the rest of my things in my bag.
“Charlotte, no! You can’t leave like this. Please, just stay and let’s talk about it.”
“I can’t. Not right now,” I say, grabbing up my purse and throwing it on my shoulder, then scooping up my luggage before I practically flee from the house.
Roman
“I fucked up,” I tell Winston.
“What’s that now? I think I’m hearing things,” he says when he cups his palm to his ear. My best friend knows I am not a man who likes to admit when I’ve made a mistake, and he takes great joy in hearing about any that might arise.
“I fucked up!”
“Really?” he asks. “How?”
“Well, it’s been a goddamn month. I thought before Tessa went home, we would’ve found the assholes responsible and ended this all for her.”
“For her and for Charlotte, you mean?”
“Yeah, for both of them,” I agree. “And then this morning, I couldn’t take it any longer. I finally had enough of her thinking Adam walked on water, so I told her everything.”
“Told her…that her husband was screwing someone else and knocked them up while he was married to her?”
“Yep.”
“How did she take that?”
“Not well. Fuck, man, I knew she wouldn’t, so why the hell did I blurt it all out?”
“Because you’re in love with her and want her to love you back?” he offers.
“Yeah, I guess so. But now she’s pissed off at me, not him for cheating on her, but me for telling her he cheated! How screwed up is that?”
“You dropped a big bomb on her, prez. Give her a little time to let the smoke clear.”
“What if she doesn’t forgive me?” I ask him. “What if I fucked everything up to try and keep her and ended up losing her for good?”
“Roman, man, you’re the most stubborn bastard I know, and I mean that as a compliment,” he says when I narrow my eyes at him. “You’re not going to give up that easy, are you?”
“No, of course not.”
“That’s what I thought. Give her time and then annoy the shit out of her until she’s finally ready to admit that her husband wasn’t an angel.”
“But she’s leaving today.”
“Let her go,” Winston suggests, which is absolutely ridiculous.
“Let her just head out? I thought you said not to give up!”
“She needs time to think. I bet that as soon as she’s out of the city she’ll realize how much she misses your ass.”
“You think?” I ask with a half grin.
“Hell yes. Charlotte needs time to grieve the husband she lost. The Adam she buried years ago isn’t the man she thought he was. She has to process that, and this time, let him go with his flaws and all.”
“I hope you’re right,” I tell him. Just sitting back and doing nothing isn’t really my style.
Charlotte
“Are you sure you’re ready to leave?” I ask Tessa when I find her sitting in the chair in her room with her luggage and things piled up next to her.
“Not really, no,” she says, which is surprising. I’ve asked her that question every day for the past week and she always said yes, sometimes even hell yes, that she’s bored and ready to go home.
“You’re not?”
“No,” she says again with a cringe. “Do you think Roman…I mean, he’s already done so much, but is there any chance he would help pay for me to stay another month?”
“You want to stay another month?” I repeat. This day is just full of freaking surprises.
“Yes, but you don’t have to stay. I know you want to go home. I’ll be fine. Verek visits everyday lately…”
“He does?”
“Ah, yeah, he does.”
“Could I ask why you let Verek come see you but not Paul?”
“Because Verek didn’t really know me before…know the person I used to be. And I guess because he was there. He knows Charlotte. I don’t have to talk to him about what happened or how I feel. He feels the same things…the anger, the disgust. Paul doesn’t. Paul may think he wants to know all of the gory details, but he doesn’t, and I don’t want to fill him in. Ever.”
“Do you talk to anyone about the details?” I ask in concern.
“I was raped by four men,” she says, making my lungs freeze in my chest. It’s the first time Tessa has ever said the word we’ve all been carefully tiptoeing around. “The ‘how’ of it doesn’t really matter. It happened in this big blur of violence and humiliation, but now it’s over,” she adds with a
