The Way Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

talk.”
    “I can’t discuss this with you. Not after what you’ve done.” She walked to the bathroom. Tried to close the door.
    He shoved through. “Bella, you abandoned me first.” Agitation sent him pacing. “You’re never at home anymore—you’re always working. We hardly see each other.”
    “And you don’t even understand why, do you?” Two sharp shakes of the head, and she returned to placing her toiletries in the suitcase. “Do you realize who we’ve become, James? We’re your parents. I’m the Stepford Wife, and you’re the bastard who cheats on her.” She blinked rapidly. “I don’t know which is harder to forgive.”
    “How many times do I have to say I’m sorry? One slip, Bella, one.” He struggled for composure. “It was wrong, so wrong. I still don’t know how—”
    “It’s not only that. It’s what’s missing. What I can’t bear anymore.”
    “What’s missing? I’ve worked my ass off to give you everything possible. A beautiful home, a life of luxury—”
    “You have. And made me a prisoner in it.”
    “What?” he thundered. “How can you say that? You know I love you.”
    She glanced at him, and he thought, for a second, that tears glittered. “Once you loved a girl who was different,” she murmured, and lifted her bag. “But we’re living your life, James, the one you said you didn’t want. The one you asked me to make sure you left behind.” She touched his cheek, and her eyes were as beautiful as ever but so sad that his own grew damp.
    “I don’t think I can live this way anymore. Something inside me is dying, and I can’t—” Her voice broke, and she spun away.
    He grabbed her arm. “Bella, we can fix this. Just tell me what you want and I’ll make it happen, but don’t leave. Or, let me go with you.”
    She stood quivering in his grasp, head bowed. “I never thought I’d say these words, but…” She glanced back over her shoulder. “I don’t want you with me, James. At least, not right now. And if you love me, you’ll let me go.”
    “For how long?” He could barely choke out the question.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Bella, this is crazy. We belong together. We always have.”
    Her eyes filled then. “I thought that was true.”
    “It is, damn it. You know it is. Bella, you can’t go. How can we repair anything if you’re not here?”
    “Not everything is a puzzle to be solved. Sometimes there are no clear answers.” She smiled at him then, through tears rolling down her cheeks. “Logic can’t fix this.”
    “Love can, damn it. How can you just walk away? How can you leave me?”
    “Please,” she whispered.
    Fury and fear rendered his voice harsh. “Go ahead, then. You’ve got your mind made up. You don’t really care what this does to us, do you?”
    She held herself very straight as she walked slowly to the door. “I’m doing this for us, James. For what we once were.” She bit her lip. “Be well, my love.”
    And then he uttered the words he wished daily, hourly, he could retract.
    “If you leave now, Bella, there may be nothing for you to come back to,” he roared as she vanished from sight.
    He’d listened, over and over, both in dreams and waking, for the faintest murmur of a response from her, but as far as he knew, Bella had left him with only his angry threats ringing in her ears.
    He sagged onto the mattress and buried his face in his hands.
    Then he rose from the bed they’d shared so many nights, and left the room that had once been their haven. At the doorway, he stopped, viewing it all as if for the first time, and contrasting the impeccable good taste of cool, muted shades and pricey antiques, with the bedrooms of their early days, brimming with flamboyant paisley hangings, eye-popping batik furniture covers, macramé tables and plants everywhere, most of which she’d grown herself from cuttings and seeds obtained free.
    Something inside me is dying.
    The evidence had been before him all along—the home