After She's Terminal The Alpha Regrets (Elaine and Lucas) novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33

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Chapter 33

Elaine found herself struggling to say no.

She stared at the chain dangling between Lucas’ fingertips and she found that in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to say yes. If only to have the pieces of what her mother left behind.

Lucas saw that hesitation, and he settled back on his heels.

“There’s more,” he said. “Everything your father withheld from you. I have it. Here.”

Elaine finally managed to tear her gaze away from the chain and lift it to his face. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking but she was certain he’d already settled on the outcome. That she would accept.

“How did you get these?”

“From your father.”

Elaine glared at him. “I know that. I meant why would he give them to you?”

“Do you not want them?” Lucas asked.

“I do, I just… Lucas, give me the locket.”

He shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. Not until you agree to call off this divorce.”

“That’s not fair!”

“It’s completely fair. I went through the trouble of getting this for you, the least you could do is show some appreciation,” Lucas countered. He held up the locket. “Do you want it or not?”

Elaine felt herself lifting her hand. She wanted to grab it. Wanted to agree if only to have this…

She stopped herself.

It took strength she hardly felt she had.

She had already lived her life without these memories and couldn’t sacrifice her new goals for them. As much as it pained her.

“Elaine,” Lucas said expectantly, tilting his head to the side. He didn’t get it. He thought she’d want these keepsakes more than anything. Yet again, he’d got it wrong. It occurred to him that he had never understood his wife.

Perhaps he never would.

Elaine wasn’t sure if she trusted her voice to speak, so she turned on her heel and storm out of the house. This time, she did not stop even as Lucas called after her. Liam was waiting near his car, leaning against the hood, hunched over as rain pelted down from the sky. He perked up as she exited the front.

She tipped her chin up, trying to keep her composure as she walked briskly toward her car.

“Elaine, what happened?” Liam asked, striding to meet her.

Lucas was out the door behind her, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw Liam. “What are you doing here?”

Liam looked up. “I was worried about Elaine.”

“Bullshit,” Lucas snapped. If Liam were here, worried about her, that meant he’d been with her. Surely it did. He

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Chapter 33

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glanced toward Liam’s car, parked haphazardly behind Elaine’s in the circular driveway. “You followed her.”

“She was upset.”

“You followed her to my house. What were you doing with my wife?”

“She’s hardly your wife anymore! Can’t you see she wants nothing to do with you?” Liam took another step forward.

Lucas glared at him. His friend and his wife. Together. He knew Liam was one to jump around from one woman to the next. He thought this fancy for Elaine would blow over in a week, but this really was taking it beyond some short-lived lust.

Could Liam have really been serious when he said he loved Elaine? It’d been annoying, at best, when this all started. Now Lucas suspected his friend of actually falling for his wife.

Elaine kept walking to her car, passing Liam. He turned to watch her.

“Elly…”

“Don’t call me that.” She didn’t look back at him, just yanked the door open to her car and got in. Lucas and Liam exchanged a glare before Liam was already jogging back to his vehicle to follow her.

Lucas just stood there in front of the door, holding the locket, watching in disbelief as Elaine drove away, and his own best friend following her.

The windshield wipers did little to clear the blur of raindrops on the glass. Or perhaps Elaine was just crying. She couldn’t tell the difference anymore. Her car sped down the road, going too fast for how little she could see.

She’d learned to expect cruelty from her father. Walter had always kept the locket and any item her mother left for her locked away. But coming from Lucas felt different. He’d dangled it in front of her face, then denied her at the last moment. She could see it for what it was.

Manipulation.

That was a different kind of cruelty than the simple neglect she’d earned from Lucas all their marriage.

Fresh tears spilled over her cheeks.

Her car drifted into the opposite lane as she tried to wipe the tears. Bright lights filled the front seat. Headlights. Another car was heading straight for her.

Elaine swerved back into her lane. Her heart racing as a truck rumbled past her.

She’d almost gotten hit.

Elaine flipped on her hazards and pulled off to the side of the road, hands shaking. She stopped there. Once the car was still, the emotion overwhelmed her once more and she sobbed against the steering wheel,

Five months left and the world felt like it was caving in on her. There wasn’t enough time. Everything was so much more complicated than she’d thought it’d be.

After a shaky inhale, she tried to compose herself. She couldn’t get home like this.

Another inhale. Exhale.

Someone tapped on her window.

Elaine jumped, flinching away from it as she looked over. Liam. Of course it was. Standing in the rain just outside

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Chapter 33

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her door. She looked away, but opened the window a crack.

“You okay?” Liam asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Your hazards are on and you look like you’ve been crying…”