Chapter 14: Her Side of the Door

Melanie's POV

I walked into Holtz Foods at eight with my hair pinned and my face blank.

Eight years had taught me that blank.

My vice president was waiting at the elevator with two coffees.

"You look terrible," she said happily. "Was it bad?"

"He cried," I said.

I took the coffee and watched her whole face light up.

"Really?"

"In the kitchen, with his hands over his eyes. It was pathetic."

"Oh, Melanie."

"I told him to pack."

She followed me down the hall, nearly skipping.

She had been with me four years, and I had given her a raise every year, and I had liked her.

I made myself remember that she had sold my marriage for a monthly bonus.

"Will you tell R?" she asked.

"Tell him what he wants to hear. I'm too tired."

She laughed and pulled out her phone.

I shut my office door in her face and stood with my back against it until my knees were steady.

Dalton's hand had been on my jaw last night.

I could still feel the shape of it.

He had touched my face with eight years of knowing on him, and he had not flinched, and he had said it was never my fault.

I kept waiting to see the other look.

I had practiced for it for so long, the one where the man you love sees what was done to you and cannot help seeing it every time he touches you.

I had waited all morning for it at the breakfast table.

He had made toast, and he had looked at me for a long time.

That was all.

I did not know what to do with it.

At noon the receptionist called.

"Mr. Ames is here."

My stomach dropped through the floor.

"Send him up."

Bradley came in smiling, in a blue jacket and good shoes, with a fading bruise on his jaw.

He shut the door and spread his arms.

"There she is."

He kissed my cheek.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Don't Give Me Tainted Love from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.