Page 52 of No Other Love

She gave me a startled glance.

I felt so much lighter confessing the petty truth to her. My love demanded it. I was ashamed of the way I’d made her feel. So small and worthless because she wasbetterat a hard thing than I was.

‘I don’t know why you ever came back here…but I am grateful for it. With all my desperate heart I am. I did not deserve it then and now, after this week, I am aware of how much I don’t deserve your generosity.’ I squeezed her hand. ‘How you let me inside you again. All the way in.’

Tears filled her lovely eyes. Arrows pricking my desperate heart.

‘You hurt me so much, Vik.’ She kept her voice level. But her eyes glistened. ‘I spent a year being hurt. Wondering if I could have been someone else…someone who wasn’t as driven, as ambitious. Maybe then you’d have stayed. You’d have chosen me.’

My heart broke at her broken words. Pain leaking through the even syllables.

‘Anika…’ I closed my eyes. And said the first words I needed to say to her. ‘I didn’t choose my parents over you. I chosemyself, my own dreams. I just never realized that is what they were.’

Her face crumpled. ‘I…’

I touched her cheeks then, wanting to offer her some comfort. Some support when we had this long-due conversation. ‘And I shouldn’t have said those things about your dad. I’m sorry about that too. Will you forgive me for it all? If not today, then some day?’

Tears streamed down her face. I wiped them away and ended by kissing her limping fingers.

‘Vikrant, I don’t understand. What do youwant?’

I took a ragged breath. Even though hope, that fickle bastard, sneaked into her teary eyes. And exploded in my own broken heart.

‘I was going to ask you to stay, you know,’ I began slowly. ‘I had this whole speech planned, about how we could both change the face of Aronda medicine forever. Have babies and raise them in the house that’s yours if it is what you want. And that could be our happily ever after.’

Her eyes went huge. ‘What are you saying?’

I extracted a sheaf of papers from the back of my pants. They were our divorce papers. ‘I didn’t sign them. I couldn’t.’

‘I…’ Anika bit her lip even though joy shone brighter in her. Brighter than the afternoon sun bouncing off the still waters of the lake.

‘So, I had this whole speech planned where you were going to give up everything just because I finally became flexible and made room for you in my life. And this.’ I waved the papersaway and they fluttered into the lake. ‘Was going to be my grand romantic gesture.’

‘Oh.’She laughed, a wobbly little sound and rose up on her toes, hope lighting up her whole face. Like she was the damn sun.

‘What’s stopping you, then?’ she asked.

I was stunned, amazed,humbledthat she’d forgiven me. Just like that. Was considering to love me all over again.Herlove was the thing mountains were made of. Strong, eternal. Everlasting. I would learn to deserve it all my life.

‘I am.’ I paused her progress and looked at her very seriously. ‘I’m not going to ask you to move here for me. And we’re definitely not staying with either of our parents, although we will take care of them. They’ve raised us and we are fucking awesome, so we owe it to them to make them feel safe and comfortable in their golden years.’

‘But…how are we going to do all that?’ Confusion caused a shadow to fall on her sunshine radiance.

‘I’m getting to that. Can I muddle through this declaration on my own, Ani?’ But I wasn’t mad about her bossy ways. I loved her bossy ways now that I could boss her back. In bed and out of it.

‘Can you hurry up and get to the end already?’ She demanded, winding her arms around my neck.

‘First, I’m going to ask you for time. Time for us to figure this out.’ I gestured to the air between us. ‘Without interference from either of our parents or the hospital, your career or mine. Your dreams or mine. And make the right choice for us. With our hearts. Wherever and whatever that maybe. Will you do that?’

‘I will. As long as you promise to share what you’re feeling with me,’ she answered instantly. ‘I…if you’re bitter or resentful or jealous, you have to tell me. And I’ll tell you if I’m feeling overwhelmed or unappreciated. Deal?’

‘Yes. We are going to communicate all the time. Even…’ I leaned down and whispered a filthy, creative demand in her ears. They turned an adorable shade of red and she hid her face in my shoulder, my brave and sexy wife.

Then, she peeked up. Mischievous and somehowmine.

‘Why should I?’ She rose and bit me on the nose. A little hard. ‘You made me suffer so much.’

‘Because I love you,’ I answered promptly. ‘Only you. And I’ll love you even if you say no to me. That’s how much I love you.’