“Be strong,” Aileen said tenderly. “Just remember he isn’t the right guy for you. Someday you’ll know you made the right choice.”
Chloe already knew she was, had known for a very long time. She’d just needed the courage to tell James. “Thank you,” she answered simply.
Those simple words of gratitude to her mom encompassed so many things:
Thank you for loving all of your children so much.
Thank you for always being there for all of us.
Thank you for always having faith in our judgment.
And so much more.
Her mother had always been Chloe’s rock, and not being able to tell her everything about James had nearly killed her. But she’d known that her mom would have shared the info with her brothers because Chloe’s safety was at risk, and James was a problem Chloe needed to work out on her own. He was the only man she’d ever known intimately, and it had taken a lot of time for her to figure out the truth. Their relationship wasn’t normal or healthy, and it was time for her to bail out.
“I’ll tell you about how it went when I get home tomorrow night,” Chloe said, taking another sip of her coffee as she saw the gentle look on her mother’s face.
“I’ll wait up,” Aileen said quickly.
Chloe laughed. “You haven’t waited up for me since high school.”
“I haven’t,” Aileen agreed. “But not because I didn’t want to,” she added, sounding disgruntled.
Chloe reached across the table and grasped her mother’s hand. “I love you, Mom.” Her voice was cracking with emotion. She didn’t really remember much about her father, but her mother had always been her greatest champion without being overbearing. Nobody had been prouder of her than her mother when Chloe had graduated from vet school.
“I love you, too, baby girl.” Aileen squeezed Chloe’s hand. “Will you tell me everything after it’s over?” she questioned hesitantly.
She knows. Somehow my mother knows that James is an abusive jerk.
“I will,” Chloe agreed, knowing she was close enough to her mother to share everything after the engagement was broken off. Since the relationship would be over, she could swear her mom to secrecy. There were so many questions about relationships she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t without revealing her past with James.
Aileen nodded, and Chloe stood up and grabbed her purse, releasing her mother’s hand reluctantly.
“Be careful,” she warned her daughter. “Scorned men can be dangerous.”
Chloe took a deep breath, not wanting her mother to know how nervous she was about breaking her engagement.
“I’m all grown up, Mom. I can handle it.” Her voice radiated with a confidence she wasn’t really feeling.
“I know you can,” Aileen said as she rose.
Chloe gave her parent a spontaneous hug, holding onto Aileen just a little longer than usual before she said good-bye and headed toward the door of the resort.
It was time to break the cycle; time for her to finally take control of her personal life, no matter what the fallout from her decision. James might be angry now, but both of them would be happier in the future.
Her resolve firmly in place, Chloe headed to work, trying not to dread the upcoming encounter with James.
Chapter 2
“I can’t marry you,” Chloe blurted out at dinner the next evening. She hadn’t waited to start eating at the family steak house in Rocky Springs. In fact, she hadn’t even received her drink.
Now that she’d worked up the courage to really talk to James, she wasn’t backing down. She wanted to get the task of telling him they were finished over with as soon as possible.
She watched as James looked at her in displeased surprise, his eyes narrowing as he gave her one of the irritated looks she’d come to know so well.
“Of course you’re marrying me,” he said, his voice calm, but she could hear the threat within his quiet tone.
She shook her head as she met his annoyed gaze. Fidgeting with the napkin on her lap, she answered, “I can’t. I’m not happy, James, and neither are you. I’m sure you’ll find a woman who pleases you, but I’m not that woman.”
Truth be told, he hadn’t seemed to like a single thing about her except the fact that she was rich and very well-connected since she’d returned to Rocky Springs. Had he always been that way? Or had she just spent most of their relationship in denial because they rarely saw each other?
Was I really so pathetic that I really believed no other man would ever love me and I had to take what was handed to me?
Right now, she wasn’t exactly certain why she’d stayed in the relationship so long, but Natalie had helped her come a long way since then. James was not going to be her future.
Fury flashed briefly in his expression before he said adamantly, “You’ll marry me, Chloe. We’ve been planning to get married for years. I’ve accepted all of your flaws, but your judgment right now has me confused. Who else will ever love you?”
His comment hit home, but Chloe tried not to show it. He was trying to reason with her, make her think that no other man would ever care about her because she wasn’t the ideal woman. Even if that was true, she was better off being alone than being with someone who treated her like she was lucky that he married her. It would make her life hell. Deep down inside, maybe she didn’t feel like anyone would ever want her, but she had to be better off alone than married to someone who kept putting her down, right?
“It doesn’t matter if I never find anyone else. I don’t want to marry you,” Chloe repeated.
“You won’t find anyone else,” James said arrogantly. “No man is going to want you, Chloe. You dress like a poor woman, you do nothing to improve your appearance, and you’d rather be with your stinky animals than anywhere else. You even smell like your patients most of the time.”
She recoiled slightly at his words, knowing most of them were actually true. She had never liked the life of a rich girl, and she attended very few social gatherings unless they were for charity. She actually did smell like animal at the end of a workday, but how she looked didn’t matter to her patients. In fact, she did like being with her animals. They gave unconditional love.
“It’s over, James,” she repeated flatly, hoping he’d finally give up.
“It’s not over, Chloe. It will never be over. I chose you, even though I could have almost any woman I want.” His voice was getting louder, and more outraged.
She looked at James, stylish in his suit and tie. He was handsome, and he was a physician. With a tall, slender physique, dark hair and blue eyes, most women would find him attractive. Unfortunately, her personal connection to him, if she’d ever really had one, was gone. She never seemed to do anything right in his eyes, and the more she understood their relationship, the more she knew how controlling he needed to be. A few of their confrontations had ended with terrifying results, with James proving he had complete control in the most heinous of ways.
He’s brainwashed me enough. It’s done. I’d be like a hamster spinning on a wheel and getting nowhere with him. I can’t bear it anymore.
Chloe swallowed hard, recognizing the tone of enmity in his voice. It usually meant she’d pay later for what she was saying. “It is over,” she stated bluntly.
Thank you, Lara and Natalie. Thank you for giving me the courage to get out of this relationship, and for making me realize how stupid I was not to realize that I couldn’t marry someone like him.
Chloe couldn’t say that she had gained a ton of confidence yet, but knowing Lara and becoming confidantes with her sister-in-law had definitely helped. Natalie had sealed the deal with her insight and support. Chloe was in a cycle of abuse, and she was jumping out of the never-ending circle no matter how difficult it might be.
“We outgrew each other,” she said quietly. “We aren’t right for each other anymore.”
Honestly, maybe they’d never been good for each other, but Chloe had been young and naïve when she’d first
met James, and she’d stayed ignorant of what was normal for years. She’d been so focused on the intensity of her studies that she’d been too mentally drained to question anything James had pounded into her brain. She’d taken it as truth, and now she was paying for her lack of attention to the relationship by letting him undermine her confidence.
“You’ll come home with me and we’ll discuss it then,” James said impatiently.
Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when the waitress came to their table to deliver their drinks. She was a pretty blonde, and Chloe was amazed how quickly James’s demeanor changed to one of a charming man who was almost flirtatious with the petite waitress.
She sighed as she watched the woman set the strawberry daiquiri in front of her with a kind smile. Chloe smiled back at her as she took the straw and started to stir the whipped cream into her drink.
James had directed his charm at Chloe at one time, too. But those days were long gone. He seemed to change personalities like he changed his clothing. She recognized his smile and charm for what it was now…nothing more than an act.
Had any of his affection for her ever been genuine?
The waitress left, and his expression immediately morphed to one of disapproval as he stared at her across the table.
I know what that look means now. If she went home with him, they wouldn’t be discussing anything rationally. He’d vent his fury by causing her pain.
“I’m not going home with you. I’m done,” she answered casually, even though butterflies were flapping around in her belly.
She rarely went home with James, and she could count on one hand the number of times they’d had sex since she’d returned to Rocky Springs. She actually dreaded those encounters because sex for James was just a way of punishing her, of asserting control now. She’d avoided it as much as possible, and lately she refused to be alone with him. After his last punishment, she hadn’t given him a chance to force her into sex again.
Taking a long sip of her drink, she watched James covertly, startled as his hand came across the table so fast that she didn’t have time to react. Wrapping long fingers around her wrist, he squeezed. Chloe flinched, knowing that the gesture might look romantic from a distance, but it was an action meant to inflict pain…and it did. The rough grasp of his hand tightened until she was afraid the bones in her wrist would crack.
“I’ve wasted all this time on you, Chloe. Do you think I’m going to just let you go? I want all of the things I’m entitled to have,” he told her angrily. “I want the cars we talked about and the home. I want to build my practice and become the most popular physician in the county. I deserve that after all the time I’ve put into you.”
James wanted a lot of toys, expensive playthings that only her money could buy. At one time, she’d been willing to share everything with him because he was going to be her husband. “I’m sorry,” she said automatically to make the pain stop.
“Then stop the talk of breaking up,” James insisted, his grip tightening cruelly. “Stop it now.”
Tears started to form in her eyes from the pain of his vicious hold on her. “I can’t,” she squeaked out, giving him a pleading look. “I won’t marry you.”
She tried to free her arm, struggling with him. “That hurts.”
“It’s going to hurt more when we get back home,” James said viciously, retaining his grip. “Stop making a scene, Chloe.”
She yanked at her arm, not caring anymore whether people noticed. “Let. Go.” For the first time, real anger rose from her belly, hatred for a man she had once thought she loved.
I don’t deserve this. No woman deserves this.
“I’m not going to stop until you stop acting like a stupid bitch,” James answered. His voice became louder, his face red with annoyance, his expression turning violent.
Chloe was just considering screaming when an arm seemingly came out of nowhere and instantly made James release his hold on her. She gasped as he released her and grunted as he yanked his own arm back in pain.
She looked up at her rescuer.
Gabe.
She was breathing fast and shallow, her heart racing as she gently rubbed her sore wrist, trying to get circulation back into her hand.
“When a lady asks you to let go, you let go,” Gabe told James in an exaggerated drawl. “You okay, Chloe?”
She looked at Gabe with panic in her eyes. “Yes. I’m fine.”
James was still cradling his arm from the brutal twist that Gabe had inflicted when he’d forced James to release Chloe.
Gabe nudged his black Stetson up with his index finger, revealing the anger in his fiery eyes. “Good. Meet me out at my truck,” he told her calmly, his ire still aimed directly at James.
Chloe’s body relaxed as sensation returned to her hand. She wanted to obey, run from the restaurant like a frightened deer with a predator on its tail, but she didn’t want Gabe getting involved in her troubles. “Come with me,” she asked beseechingly. “I’m not feeling well. I want to go home.” She stood and reached out for his hand.
Gabe hesitated as he looked down at James as though the doctor was a cockroach he’d like to squash. Then he looked at Chloe and he grasped her outstretched hand. “You come first, no matter how much I’d like to kick his ass right now,” he told her huskily. “Come on.”
“This isn’t over, Chloe,” James hissed as Gabe began to lead her out of the restaurant.
Gabe turned. “It’s over,” he assured James, giving the man seated at the table a deadly look before he gently tugged Chloe with him out of the restaurant.
Chloe followed, unaffected by the violent look in Gabe’s eyes. Unlike James, somehow she sensed Gabe would never hurt her, even if he was angry.
“What the hell was that about?” Gabe opened the door of his truck as they arrived at his parking spot.
Chloe reached for the handle inside the truck and put her foot on the running board to help her hop into the seat of the large vehicle.
Gabe stopped her by gently grasping her arm and wrapping it around his neck before he lifted her and placed her into the seat like she weighed almost nothing.
“I was breaking off our engagement,” she told him honestly, thinking he deserved to know since he’d helped her. He’d probably figured it out anyway from the few comments that he’d obviously heard being exchanged between her and James.
She couldn’t see his features. He was still standing outside the vehicle and the light from inside the truck didn’t reach his face.
“Thank fuck!” he answered in a relieved tone. “Let me see your arm.”
His touch was tender and easy as he supported her arm with one hand and probed gently at her wrist with the other. “You already have some old bruises.” Gabe’s voice vibrated with fury.
Chloe knew she’d have more by morning. The previous ones were almost unnoticeable, so she hadn’t worn a shirt with extra-long sleeves. “They’ll fade.”
“They shouldn’t be there in the first place,” Gabe grumbled. “What the hell, Chloe? Has this happened before?”
Chloe sighed. It had happened more times than she could count. Honestly, the physical pain faded; the mental torture was a whole lot harder to get over.
She was silent as Gabe released her arm and buckled her seat belt. He closed the door carefully and moved to the driver’s side.
Darkness fell over the interior of the vehicle as he sat down and closed his door; he made no move to start the truck. It was so quiet that Chloe could hear his ragged breathing.
Finally, he spoke. “I want to know what happened, Chloe. I’d like to know everything. I can’t help you if I don’t know the whole picture.”
Tears sprung to her eyes as she heard the concern in Gabe’s voice. “It’s a long story,” she warned, really wanting to blurt out her confusion and pain to Gabe.
“You have brothers who would have protected you, friends like me who would have protected you. It’s not like you depend on him for anything. I wan
t to understand why.” His voice was a mixture of agitation and puzzlement.
“I know. I’m not certain that I can really explain,” Chloe said tearfully.
“Hey, I’m not blaming you,” Gabe explained gently. “I just want to understand.”
His genuine interest made Chloe cave. “That makes two of us,” she answered on a strangled sob.
Gabe had referred to himself as her friend, even though she’d done everything she could to avoid him or push him away ever since he’d kissed her on New Year’s Eve.
“We’ll figure it out, Chloe. I promise,” Gabe said huskily, his hand reaching for hers through the surrounding darkness. “Just promise me you’ll never go back.”
Her heart stuttered as he clasped her hand gently and entwined her smaller fingers with his. It was an easy promise to make. She’d come far enough that she’d never go back again. “I promise.”
Gabe started the vehicle. “Right now, that’s about the only thing I really need to hear.”
The relief and sincerity in his voice made Chloe start to sob, not realizing how nice it was to have someone who cared. No doubt, her brothers would want to kill anybody who caused her pain, but the concern seemed different coming from a man who wasn’t related to her.
“You’re a good man,” Chloe told him, the thought hitting her at the same time she spoke it aloud.
“I’m not perfect, but I’m damn well someone better than what you just left,” Gabe answered, his tone disgruntled.
“Thank you for helping me.” She was grateful that Gabe had appeared when he did.
“Hell, all you ever have to do is ask. I’m pretty damn happy that I was craving a steak tonight.” He squeezed her hand and let it go to put the truck into gear.
“I’m not very good at asking for help,” Chloe admitted.
“I noticed,” Gabe replied unhappily as he maneuvered the vehicle out of the parking lot. “Now talk,” he insisted.
Chloe took a deep breath, and began to honestly reveal everything she could about her completely messed-up relationship with James. She shared what she’d discovered in counseling, and how she was slowly taking control of her life again. He didn’t judge her, asking questions when he wanted to clarify something, but not berating her for staying with James for so long.