Love Hurts Love Heals

PROLOGUE:

TOBIAS:

Our eyes met from across the room as she stands at the bar, ordering herself a drink. 

My glass is half full. Whiskey. 

The ambient colour of love, lust, and sin. Burns you right down to the core, menacingly destroying your insides with no fucks given.

Love.

Some say it is a distraction to a path of destruction, and I, for one, can vouch for that.

I have been burned not once, but twice by Keri Appleton and each time, I've only just managed to claw my way out of the hole of self-torment I dug for myself.

But this time around, I won't let her go.

She is mine. She has always been mine. Even when she left the country without saying goodbye, even now, when she believes that she isn't tied to me.

She looks different. She's filled out in places that make her look devastatingly gorgeous; almost being enough to make my heart cease on the spot. 

My thumb twitches as I roll my heavy steel ring around my finger like it somewhat calms the hostility that is burning deep inside me.

"She looks Happy," Melanie says across the table from me as her gaze follows mine.

My eyes narrow when my gaze shifts to the man standing next to her with his hand on her hip, whispering in her ear.

"Happy?" I snort. "That's not her being happy. That is revenge." After all these years, I'm intrigued to find out why she has returned. With him.

I stand up from my chair, downing the rest of my whiskey. I need to know why she is here. Of all days, why make yourself seen?

"Mr. Landry, where are you going? We still need to close this deal." Mr. Adem calls out to me over the loud music.

I ignore him. Melanie is more than capable of handling all the paperwork on our end of the deal. 

Strolling towards Keri, I pass Davis sitting at the table, his chin touching his chest, swaying side to side with a bottle of beer still in his grasp. 

Ava sits beside him with their daughter sound asleep in her arms as she pats her bottom, rocking back and forth in her chair.

The closer I get to Keri, the more I feel like I need to obliterate something. Preferably her.

Setting her glass on the bar top, she turns away and heads towards the back exit door. I follow her, keeping my distance, and the second I step outside, the cold air snakes its icy tentacles around the base of my throat as I shove the door open.

"It's okay, my little darlings, I'll be back soon. Mummy just needs to... Oh..." I reach around her curvy body, forcing the door behind her shut as I press her body against it. "Tobias!" She exclaims, swallowing thickly with her wide eyes darting between me and her phone.

"Mummy, Mummy... where are you? We can't see you," a high-pitched voice screams through the other end of the phone.

Anger disperses across my chest. Did I hear right? Was the voice of a little girl calling Keri mummy, on the other end of the phone?

I rip the phone out of her hand, "No, please... Tobias!" her voice fills with panic as I lift the phone to my face to see who she is talking to.

I stumble back, feeling like I've been kicked in the gut as my gaze collides with not one, but two sets of eyes that look identical to mine.

"Mummy? Mummy... who is that man? He doesn't look like our uncle?"

"Tobias... I..."

"You're a mother?" I spit out with venom, unable to hide the rage behind my words.  

"I... yes," she replies softly, hanging her head in shame.

"Are they..." My voice trails off, knowing that they can't be. "When were you going to tell me?"

I pass her the phone back as she slouches against the door with tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Don't you think I have a right to know that my wife fell pregnant to a man who took her away from me?" I ask darkly, anxiously waiting for her reaction after she registers what I've just said.

Her head snaps up with a look of shock burning brightly in her eyes, "your wife?"

Pressing my hands against the door on either side of her head. I cage her in between my arms, leaning my head next to hers, my lips a whisper away from her ear.

"That's right, spitfire," I whisper in a raspy voice, filling my lungs with her scent. "You are still my wife, and I am your husband. Those divorce papers you sent me, I never signed them."

---

FOUR YEARS EARLIER:

My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as I continue to read the letter left on my bakery's doorstep upon my arrival this morning.

"Mother..." I hiss, refraining from finishing my sentence.

I clench my jaw, screwing up the letter as I refuse to let Landry Enterprise spoil my day. Especially when I haven't had the chance to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee just yet.

 I toss the letter into the garbage where it belongs.