Chapter 20
From the moment Arlene received the divorce papers from her attomey, the knew that once Emery learned the truth, he would inevitably ask her that question
After all, in his world, she loved him to the point of no retum. That’s what gave him the confidence to cheat on her–again and again–hiding behind the excuse that he wasn’t done having fun “He truly believed her devation was unshakable, that even if one day her feelings shifted to someone else, it would just be love curdled
into revinge
He used that reasoning to justify his indulgences.
See? There’s no such thing as unwavering love. All those fings and affairs–perfectly normal, just human nature. Put anyone else in my place, they’d make the same choices. Even the woman I once tried to settle down for couldn’t stay faithful forever, so why should I hold myself to such impossible standards?
love is so fickle why waste loyalty on it? Better to enjoy life while I’m young, play the field, and when I’m tired, find someone with similar interests and just make don’t that enough?
These were the thoughts that ran through Emery’s mind each time he betrayed her after their wedding
In the beginning Arlene didn’t understand any of this?
Not until she’d hit rock bottom, when she approached Pearson and offered to make him her lover, did she first experience what it meant to betray a mamage. The difference was, even as she tried to hurt Emery, she was haunted by quit for being unfaithful herself.
Vengeance and self–loathing chumed inside het taking turns tormenting her, leaving her in a pain so deep she could hardly breathe
It wasn’t until that sudden car accident–when her life hung in the balance–that Arlene finally saw the truth. She found the one answer that could set her free
Love or hate what did it matter? in the face of life and death, they were nothing but fleeting illusions. Once you’re gone, just ashes in an um, you have nothing left at
Was it really worth torturing yourself, wasting the rest of your life on people and things that never deserved it in the first place?
She was only twenty–seven Why should she bind herself to Emery for the rest of her days?
That’s the answer Arlene wrote for herself after surviving what should have been a fatal accident–a solution to the marriage puzzle that had once seemed impossible to solve
So after her recovery, when Pearson, with his usual charm, asked again if she’d make their relationship official, she said yes
She chose to let herself off the hook. She chose to stop before going over the edge, to refuse to become as careless with love as Emery had been
She still had the courage to stanovec someone who truly loved her and a future full of possibilites!!
She and Emery had never been the same kind of people!!
And so, when the dust had finally settled, Arlene found her chance to say all the words sheld buned deep inside her heart.
Face to face with Emery, she spoke, each word clear and certain.!!
Tvenge? 11 admit, I once wanted to get back at you. But then I realized–if I wasted my entire life just to punish you for your fake, cheap affection, that would be the greatest loss of all in the end, I chose to be with Pearson not to hurt you, but simply because we love each other
“My view on love is simple. If you love someone, you stay; if you don’t you leave. It’s not a complicated decision. You never needed to come up with all those half–baked excuses to hide the fact that you’d fallen out of love. All you ever had to do was tell me the truth–that you didn’t love me anymore–and I would have left without complaint“.
“But you dragged it out fusing to let me go. Marrying you made this past year the darkest, hardest time of my life. But it’s over now, and I’ve finally woken up and decided to let myself move on
“Maybe there really are people like you out there–people capable of loving many at once, driding their heart into pieces, believing in open manages. Maybe one day the kind of relationship you want will be the norm, and maybe one day you’ll finally come back and give your heart to your family.”
“But none of that has anything to do with me anymore, Emery. Because you and we’ve never been walking the same road. Not before, not now, and not ever
