Snowbound Reunion in Japan by Nina Milne

Author:Nina Milne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-09-13T17:59:05+00:00

* * *

Did she want to tell Zayne?

Thea smiled at the member of staff automatically as she mulled over the question.

She’d never talked about her break-up with Ian to anyone. Not even her sisters.

Sienna’s marriage had been in trouble so she definitely hadn’t wanted to burden her big sister with her own problems. But it had been more than that. She hadn’t known if Sienna would get it. Hadn’t been sure that her sister wouldn’t secretly side with Ian, even if she’d never admit it.

Sometimes Thea herself wondered if she had been the one at fault.

But Zayne? Maybe she could tell him. Should tell him. Because it would be a reminder to herself that she was far from the kind of woman he was looking for.

Because something strange had happened whilst they’d been talking. She’d found herself feeling a tinge of envy, a green strand of jealousy, towards this as yet unknown woman who would share Zayne’s life. Which was ridiculous. It must be some side effect of their equally ridiculous attraction. Well, perhaps once he knew the truth about her it would kill any attraction stone-cold dead. Most significantly, it would reinforce to him how important it was to be upfront and honest.

So she nodded. ‘I’ll tell you. I met Ian when I was twenty-three and he was twenty-five. We met at a Law Society event. He was...well, is a fellow lawyer, and we hit it off straight away. We were both ambitious, driven, and we wanted the same in life. Things moved quickly. Neither of us saw any reason to wait. Pretty soon we were an item, and a couple of years after that we moved in together.’

Zayne nodded, but said nothing, and she knew he didn’t want to interrupt the flow of her words. She remembered now what a good listener he was. Could see an echo of the young boy he’d once been, listening while she explained some petty school feud, or her disappointment at losing the netball finals, how as captain she felt she’d let the team down.

‘We did talk about the future, but it was always around work, how we both wanted promotions, partnerships. Ironically, things started to go a little bit wrong when I got a promotion before he did. He minded. He pretended he didn’t, but with hindsight something shifted.’

She should have seen the signs then, in the small put-downs, the sudden criticisms, the change in his expectations.

‘He started getting annoyed that we got so many takeaways and said he wanted me to cook more. There’d be little put-downs in front of our friends, little gibes.’

She really should have seen it—she had been quick enough to spot the flaws in Sienna’s marriage...the way Callum had treated Sienna.

‘I made excuses, tried to understand the fragility of the male ego. Then he got a promotion too, and things were better for a while. Until I got more successful. A pattern emerged. Ian started to undermine my work plans, subtly trying to sabotage things so

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