Chapter 6
Regrets
Veronica’s POV
His face was flustered and red with embarrassment, confirming how right I was. My heart squeezed tightly as the truth became clearer by the minute.
This man didn’t make any effort to know me, even after seven years as his secretary and three years as his wife.
“They aren’t for you,” Carter muttered, pushing them behind him immediately to prove that he was lying. He couldn’t even look at me, his usual confidence slipping like sand through his fingers. “I… I bought them for my mother.”
I nearly laughed, the bitterness rising in my throat like bile. Of course you did.
“Right,” I said, my voice cold and flat. “Your mother.”
There was no warmth in the silence that followed—just the tension of a thousand unsaid words hanging between us. I folded my arms, holding myself tightly as if the act could keep me from breaking.
“Mom, the bracelet belongs to Veronica. I didn’t buy it for her,” Carter said to Marian but the woman still didn’t look like she believed us.
“Carter, you don’t have to cover up for this woman…” she started saying but he cut her short.
“I am not covering up for anyone. Veronica has had that bracelet way before we got married. Hand it over to her please,” he said and that seemed to convince her.
Reluctantly, Marian handed over the bracelet to me and I received it with grace. Finally! I couldn’t wait to leave this suffocating place.
“Thank you,” I said curtly, tucking it in my bag.
“Well,” Marian said, her lips curling into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “it seems this little misunderstanding is over. You can leave now, Veronica.”
Leave.
Even though it was the very freedom I needed, it hurt to think that they could dismiss me so quicky.
I reached into my bag and pulled out the papers—two crisp sheets that felt heavier than they should have. The divorce agreement and my resignation letter. My ticket out of this nightmare.
I sucked in a deep breath, reminding myself that this was the right thing to do, no matter how much it hurt.
“Here,” I said, holding them out. “This is all you need from me.”
“What is this?” Carter added and I strugged.
“You’ll see.”
But before I could turn and walk away, I felt it—a hand grabbing my wrist, stopping me mid-step. Carter.
“Veronica,” he said, his voice low and urgent, “This is a very big decision to just make out of the blue, you can’t just leave like this. You need to tell Grandfather. You know how much he likes you. Leaving like this will crush him.”
Right! Of course he was worried about his grandfather’s reaction.
Master Grayson. The only member of his family who had ever been kind to me, the man who had treated me like a granddaughter when no one else did. For a moment, guilt wavered in my chest, but I shoved it aside.
“I’ll find time,” I replied, keeping my tone cool, “to talk to him myself.”
Carter’s grip tightened, his knuckles going white. “That’s not good enough. I’m not signing this.” He shook the papers in his free hand. “The company still needs you. I still…”
I let out a loud and bitter laugh. Wow! This was more than interesting. He was chasing me because he still wanted to enslave me at the company so he could flaunt his first love more in my face.
“The company? Last time I checked, you had your sweet little Meghan by your side. I’m sure she’ll be a great help to you, now that she’s carrying your child.”
His face paled, and for a split second, he looked almost guilty. Good.
“That’s not—”
“What it looks like?” I cut him off, my words laced with venom. “Oh, right. I must be misunderstanding everything because I’m just plain stupid right?”
“Veronica, listen to me.”
But Marian stepped in then, her voice chiming over his like a bell. “Oh, Carter, let her go. Meghan is a lovely girl, and we’re more than happy to have her as part of this family.”
I turned to Marian slowly, my lip curling. “I’m sure you are.”
Carter tried again, his voice breaking with something I didn’t care to name. “It was an accident. Meghan’s pregnancy—”
“An accident?” I repeated, cutting him off. The word stung, reverberating in my chest like an old wound ripping open. “The way you explain things, Carter, everything’s just one big accident, isn’t it? And you expect me to believe that, don’t you? Yet you’ve never believed that what happened between us three years ago was an accident as well.”
The room went silent. Carter looked stricken, like I’d just slapped him. Maybe I should have. It would have been a good way to release most of the pain clawing me inside.
I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I turned on my heel, yanking my wrist free of his grip. My steps echoed through the room as I walked away, but his voice chased after me.
“You can’t live without me, Veronica!” he called, his voice desperate, breaking at the edges. “You’ll surely come running back, I promise you that!”
The words hit me like the truck. The audacity of this man.
“You have no where to go, Veronica. Without me, you are lost,” he said.
I guess this is what you get when you put your life on hold for someone. They suddenly think that without them, you are nothing. I was so going to prove this man wrong.
I stopped just long enough to look back, meeting his eyes with all the cold anger I could summon. “Watch me.”
And then I walked out.
The moment the front door closed behind me, I let out a shaky breath. My chest felt heavy, my hands trembling.
So many emotions were swirling inside me. Anger, pain, frustration.
I could never go back. Not now. Not ever. I don’t care what I had to do but Carter was no longer going to be a part of my life.
