Suddenly, he clutched his head, fingers tangling in his hair as he shook it in torment. “But I couldn’t make peace with it!”
His voice broke as he tilted his face upward. “Could I? I didn’t agree because I stopped loving you! I agreed because you were suffering, because you didn’t want me anymore!”
Hadley’s throat constricted, a knot of emotions tightening within her. She shot back, her voice steady but edged with defiance. “Do you truly not understand why I couldn’t stay with you?”
“Well.” Eric’s face drained of color, his nod heavy with resignation. “I understand. I know it all. It’s my fault. I don’t deserve you anymore.”
A sudden gasp broke from him, his sobs erupting, raw and uncontained. “I’m a wretch! I treated you horribly! I caused you so much pain…”
His cries swelled, loud and unbridled, like a child lost in despair.
Hadley stood rooted to the spot, stunned, her eyes wide with disbelief. The man she had grown used to—cool, commanding, and emotionally distant—was nowhere to be found.
Never in her wildest imagination had she pictured him like this—so fragile, so utterly shattered.
Besides, what was the point of all this?
A faint, sardonic smile tugged at Hadley’s lips.
“If you know all that, then why put on this show in front of me? Why the tears?” She hadn’t shed a single tear, so how could he?
“Stop crying!” Hadley’s voice sharpened, slicing through the air. “Stop it! Do you hear me?”
Eric froze.
Hadley’s words, like a whip, snapped him into silence.
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Eric hiccuped, struggling to stifle his sobs, his gaze pitiful and vulnerable, like a scolded child caught in the wrong.
“If you’re done with the waterworks, go pull yourself together. I’ll call Phillips to come in…”
Hadley turned, moving to rise once more.
“Hadley!” Eric’s voice broke through again, desperate. He didn’t dare touch her skin this time, instead grasping the edge of her shirt with trembling fingers.
Hadley’s brow furrowed as she spun back, irritation flaring. “What now? Can’t you just—”
“Is he good to you?” Eric’s question cut through her, abrupt and piercing.
Hadley froze, thrown off by the sudden shift.
She then quickly caught on. Eric could only be talking about Zane.
A dry, humorless laugh escaped her.
Of course. Tamara, ever loyal to Eric, must have filled him in. Tamara was his ally; it made perfect sense that Eric would be familiar with the details of Hadley’s life through her.
Hadley had never stopped Tamara nor said anything about her reporting to Eric. She believed perhaps it was better to leave him to wrestle with his assumptions. In time, he would let go.
.
.
.