She Rolled The Dice On Our Marriage And He Let Her Win Chapter 02

She Rolled The Dice On Our Marriage And He Let Her Win Chapter 02

“What?”

Callum looked like he hadn’t understood me.

I was about to say it again when the car made a sharp turn, throwing up a gust of wind that swallowed the words before they could leave my mouth.

Of course.

He couldn’t bear to make Bria wait.

My lower stomach still hurt, so I went to a clinic by myself. The doctor gave me some medication and told me to rest.

When I got back to the Rourke estate, a girl I didn’t recognize stopped me at the door.

“Who are you? You can’t just walk into someone else’s house.”

Mrs. Bell hurried over and yanked her back.

“You foolish girl. This is Mrs. Rourke.”

Then she turned to me in a panic. “She only started last month and hasn’t met everyone yet, Mrs. Rourke. Please don’t—”

“It’s fine,” I said quietly. “It’s not her fault.”

After all, I was sent away every few days whenever Callum needed to keep Bria happy.

It made sense that the new staff didn’t know me.

The huge estate was empty.

The living room walls were covered with photos of Callum and Bria. Amusement parks. Famous resorts. Little craft studios.

Our wedding portrait had been thrown into storage long ago, gathering dust.

I found a box of old things.

Love letters. Ticket stubs. Photographs. Pieces of a life I used to think mattered.

In one photo, I was standing beside Callum, dusty and sunburned, my hair cut blunt at my jaw and a camera hanging from my neck. I looked like a scrappy little tomboy.

I had done two reckless things in my life.

The first was becoming a conflict-zone photojournalist at twenty-two, against my grandfather’s wishes, following the path my late parents had once taken.

The second was asking Callum Rourke to kiss me in the middle of a field shelter while bombs fell around us.

That night, an airstrike hit the refugee shelter without warning.

A mother and daughter beside me were killed on impact.

I was trapped beneath a collapsed beam as flames crawled over the walls, the heat burning the air out of my lungs.

Callum dug me out.

He shielded me with his own body, dragged me through the smoke, and hauled me into a trench before the rescue team could even move.

Shells kept falling.

He had come for me alone, risking his life.

I couldn’t stop crying.

I had already loved him then. I had written him letters I never dared to send.

I thought we were going to die, so I said the one thing I had been too afraid to say.

“Kiss me,” I begged. “We might not leave anything behind, but at least we can leave love.”

He cried too. Then he leaned in and kissed me.

Our lips touched for one second.

Just one.

But in that second, I thought dying would be worth it.

The photo was suddenly snatched from my hand.

“Is this you?” Bria said, wrinkling her nose. “You looked so ugly.”

Then she smiled at the picture. “Callum looked handsome, though.”

She stared at me.

“You’re divorced now, right? Why are you still in our house, old lady?”

Her expression and tone were as innocent as a child’s. But the words coming out of her mouth were vicious.

When she noticed where I was looking, she tugged at the necklace around her neck.

“What? Is this yours?”

It was the necklace Callum had designed for my birthday, engraved with our initials. I had treasured it so much that I barely ever wore it.

Bria huffed.

“I said it was pretty, so Callum gave it to me.”

Then she shrieked, “If it’s yours, I don’t want it!”

She yanked hard, snapping the chain, and threw it onto the floor.

At that moment, Callum walked in.

Bria immediately hid behind him.

“I broke the necklace by accident,” she said, trembling. “Maren wanted to hit me. Callum, I’m scared.”

Callum didn’t even bother asking me what happened.

“It’s just a cheap necklace,” he snapped. “Garbage. Stop making trouble over nothing, Maren.”

I looked at him and asked softly, “Is that who I am to you?”

Something cracked across his expression. His mouth tightened.

I crouched down, picked up the broken necklace, and dropped it into the trash. Watching it land there, twisted and useless, I suddenly felt like I was looking at what was left of us.

Callum stared at the trash can for a few seconds. Then anger flashed across his face.

“Maren, that was too much.”

A sharp ache spread through my chest.

“You broke it. You called it trash. I only threw away the trash. How is that too much?”

Callum had no answer.

His chest rose and fell hard.

Bria quickly touched his arm.

“Callum, don’t be mad. Let’s play a game instead.”

She smiled sweetly.

“We’ll roll the die. If it lands on odd, Maren has to get rid of the baby, okay?”