The Marriage I Chose to Forget

Damian Kettering watched me collapse to the floor.

A faint look of relief crossed his face.

"Maybe it's better that I finally say it. Otherwise, you'd just keep pushing further.

"Men mess up. It happens. Even your ex only made a few mistakes, and you acted like he'd committed some unforgivable crime."

My head rang.

It hurt so much I couldn't make a sound.

Damian lit a cigarette and slowly blew the smoke in my direction.

"I've always hated that look you get. Like you're the victim and everyone else is the villain."

The tears came anyway.

My ex, Tyler Briggs, and I had grown up together.

When my biological family finally found me and brought me back to Bellhaven, he followed.

It didn't take long before I repeatedly caught him spending nights at clubs with other women.

He never looked guilty.

Instead, he humiliated me in front of everyone.

"What gives you the right to look down on women who work in clubs? Didn't you sell drinks at a bar to pay your college tuition?

"You're no better than any of them. Who's better than who?

"You really think the ugly duckling turned into a swan? Take away the expensive clothes and the Merriweather name, and you're still just Tammy Lynn from the sticks."

That was when Damian appeared.

He beat Tyler so badly he broke three of his ribs.

Then he told me how he felt, and he proposed.

Piece by piece, he rebuilt the confidence Tyler had shattered.

He used to tell me, "Claire, you're the best girl there is. Have a little confidence."

I thought he had saved me.

I had only walked from one abyss into another.

Damian looked down at me now.

"And if we're being technical about who came first... you're the other woman."

Cold washed over me.

"What?"

I barely recognized my own voice.

Damian laughed.

"Sabrina and I slept together a long time ago. She was spoiled back then, so we were always breaking up and getting back together.

"Then you came home, and she started saying whatever came into her head. She begged me to leave her alone. She told me to go after you instead.

"So I did, just to get back at her. I didn't expect you to be so easy, though. It only took a few days."

He reached down and wiped a tear from my cheek.

"And once I had you, I couldn't bring myself to let you go."

His voice turned soft and coaxing.

"So why can't you just behave, Claire?"

"No."

The word ripped out of me.

"No!"

I shoved him away.

"Why did you both have to come into my life and ruin it?"

I had treated them as the closest people I had.

Even after learning Sabrina had lived as the Merriweathers' daughter for twenty years in my placee, I never hated her for it.

But she and Damian had turned me into a joke.

"I'm telling Mom and Dad."

I pointed at him, forcing my voice louder even though I was shaking.

"I'm telling them exactly what the two of you have been doing."

Damian didn't look nervous.

He only watched me with something close to pity and shook his head.

"If I were you," he said, "I wouldn't humiliate myself like that."