I Refuse to Divorce!

Turning on the bedside lamp, Mason sat up, leaned on the headboard, and looked at her, “What do you think?"

Zoe had no answer for that.

Smiling faintly, he spoke. His deep voice sounded especially moving in the night.

“I've never loved anyone from the bottom of my heart, Zoe, and I don't know what it feels like to be in love. However, this is the first time I've ever cared about someone. I care about you so much that I ditched my principles. I even followed you to your parents’ place and fixed the leaky pipe in their kitchen.”

Pausing briefly, he kept going, “Do you think I did all that just to find someone to sleep with? I think you know that a lot of women would throw themselves at me if that's what I wanted.”

Zoe refused to go along with it. “Well. I'm not stopping you.”

He chuckled in response. His eyes looked dashing in the glow from the lamp. His brows exuded a charm that only mature men possessed. She knew, deep down, that any woman would serve herself up on a silver plate to him.

Touching her cheeks gently, he said, “Perhaps I'm getting along in age, but I actually look forward to building a family of my own. I want to have a baby with you, Zoe. I don’t mind if it's a boy or a girl. But what I want most of all is your love. I want you to have eyes for me and only me, like what you wrote in your diary.”

At first, he thought he didn’t mean what he said, that his words were merely one of the means to keep her with him. However, a thought struck him when he blurted out those words.

He wanted to forget about his past and start a new life with her. He wanted to love her from the bottom of his heart!

However, the ridiculous thoughts only passed through his mind for a fleeting moment. Perhaps he had a taste of family life and that softened him up. He couldn't believe he actually thought of loving her for real. On the other hand, Zoe had loved him since she was young. So, what he said touched her heart to a certain extent. It was just that she had been tortured far too much in the past few years and she couldn't muster up the courage to love someone again, much less Mason. Tears welled up in her eyes. She leaned on the headboard and stared at the wall across the room quietly.

Much time passed before she said softly, “I can't tell if you're being serious, Mason. If you are, I must tell you it's too late. I can’t stand a third person meddling in our marriage! For that matter, I'm also not sure if you really mean everything you say or if you're just being impulsive. “You say you want my love today, but you might change your mind and cast me aside like a broken doll tomorrow.”

Sobbing, she continued, “It takes a lot of courage to love someone, Mason, and I'm no longer the eighteen-year-old girl I used to be.”

After she said her piece, he looked at her. At the end of the day, she was moved by what he said, but he did hurt her in the past. The tears in her eyes were the best proof of that.

He wiped them away gently and spoke softly, “I wasn't being impulsive, Zoe. I want to start over with you. I mean it!"

Holding the back of her neck, he kissed her.

He was almost moved by what she said. They had been married for a few years and he must've grown softer from it. Perhaps he liked Zoe a little. What he could say for sure, though, was that this wasn't love.

He wanted to keep her around. He wanted her to love him. That was why he made concessions.

From here on out, Ava would handle everything related to Lilith and he would never see her again.

She tilted her head and looked at him. Every fiber of her being was screaming at her not to fall for him again, but the sentimental side of her prevailed instead.

She'd place her faith in him once more.

Speaking softly, she said, “It might take me years, even decades, to rediscover my love for you, Mason. Would you still want it then?” Her bathrobe had slipped slightly and her hair was a little tousled. There was a fragile beauty to it.

He kissed her tenderly for a long time. Then, he pulled her into his arms and said softly, “I would!”

Mason went on a work trip to Crocksten for a week. She didn't call him much during that time. He might've said he wanted to start over with her, but she had to control herself. She didn't want to seem too eager. As she grew older, she came to understand that men wouldn't appreciate women who were too eager. Once the novelty had worn off, men would find that trait to be annoying! More to the point, they had been married for three years.

On the contrary, Mason gave her a call every night around ten o'clock. If he worked late, then he'd text her instead. He acted as if he was a man who had only recently fallen in love when he made the effort. At the same time, he also acted like a husband who loved his wife deeply. It felt too good to be true.