Collateral Damage: A Small Town Romance by Lagomarsino Giulia

Author:Lagomarsino, Giulia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Anna

I was shocked at Robert’s response. I hadn’t expected the look of sadness on his face, the look of defeat. I thought that the man I knew was no longer there, but now I could see he was still there, buried deep inside the man in front of me. I had a feeling that my pregnancy had affected him more than he let on, obviously not in the same way as me, but it had changed the course of his life. It changed who he was supposed to be.

He grabbed his stuff as I stared at him and then headed for the door, pausing momentarily for me to follow. We walked down to his car in silence and drove out of the city without another word spoken. I didn’t know what to say. All along, I had blamed him for how my life had turned out. Logically, I knew it was on both of us, but I needed someone to blame. Decisions had been made without me feeling like I really had any say in what happened. And I went along, but that was on me. I knew giving our son up for adoption was the best thing at the time, and I didn’t regret it. Robert and I wouldn’t have been able to care for him or give him the life he deserved.

I glanced over at him, his hard expression hitting me like a sledgehammer. I still loved this man, faults and all. But we were different now, and what we had was gone. When he pulled into my driveway, I lingered, unsure what to say at this point. I just didn’t want to leave things the way they were.

“Robert-“

“I’ll call you the next time that I need your help. And Mr. Mosley has put in the paperwork for you to be paid,” he said, staring straight ahead.

“Robert,” I repeated, wishing he would just look at me. When he finally did, I saw shame in his eyes. I hadn’t meant for him to blame himself. I wanted him to understand where I was coming from, but I didn’t want him to put this all on himself. “I didn’t tell you so you would feel bad. What happened is in the past. I like my life. This,” I waved to my trailer, “is just a temporary situation. I’m doing good for myself and I’m happy with my life.”

“Until the government takes it from you,” he huffed. “What will you do then? You won’t take my money.”

My mouth gaped. “How did you know?”

“Eric told me. He saw the letter.”

“Is that why you…was this all to trick me into taking your money?”

He huffed out a laugh. “You should have heard my brothers, trying to come up with ways that I could win you back. I wanted to help you,” he said, wringing his hands on the steering wheel. “I hate you living here, but I knew that you would never accept my money. And then this thing at work happened and I knew you could help me.

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