Divorce Me I'm Done Serving You (Ayla and Troy) novel Chapter 842

Halle knew exactly what kind of image James had of her in his head. Soft. Sweet. Harmless. If she ever found out the full extent of it, she'd probably strangle him. It was insulting, frankly. She'd been fighting and clawing her way through life since she was old enough to understand what losing looked like. "Soft" had never once applied to her.

James leaned back in his seat. "Now that I'm older, the only thing my family still worries about is my love life. They just want me to settle down and stop messing around. The nagging never stops. Honestly, that's the whole reason I escaped to Trensea."

Halle stared at him.

Dammit. He'd roped her into another one of his tangents.

James looked at her, and without a single beat of hesitation, no buildup, and no warning, he said, "So what if we just got married? What do you think?"

Halle nearly choked. She studied his face, searching hard for any trace of a joke, but there was nothing. He was dead serious. He was genuinely sitting here proposing marriage over dinner like it was a business lunch agenda item.

Halle had seen a lot in her life, but James Reagen still managed to floor her. "Mr. Reagen, are you even awake right now? Just saying whatever pops into your dreams?"

"I'm completely serious. The pressure from my family is unbearable, and I want it dealt with. But I'm picky. If I can't stand someone, I can't build a life with them. So I figured I'd ask you." He said all of this with a perfectly straight face, like he was walking her through a quarterly report.

Halle laughed. Marriage. He'd tossed it out the way someone might suggest grabbing coffee. James was 31 years old and still pulling stunts like this.

The whole thing was absurd, but Halle wasn't angry. Once she processed what he'd actually said, she wasn't even surprised. This was exactly the kind of thing James would do.

But she had zero interest in playing along. She'd never considered letting him into her life, not in any real way.

Sure, James was rich, good-looking, and came from one of the most powerful families around, but getting tangled up with him meant navigating a web of obligations and social politics that she had no appetite for.

Halle knew herself too well. She didn't compromise for anyone in her personal life, and she sure as hell didn't believe James was the type to bend to someone else's will either.

She was stubborn, controlling, and set in her ways. She couldn't tolerate even the smallest constraint on her freedom.

And beyond all of that, there was the most important thing. She didn't have feelings for James. She didn't like men she couldn't manage, and James was the definition of unmanageable.

Her life was already dramatic enough. All she wanted was some peace and quiet.

She smiled at him. "I can only disappoint you. I don't want to marry you."

James looked genuinely rattled, though he tried to play it cool. "Why not?"

Halle glanced over at him. Seeing James looking defeated was a rare sight.

His fingers tapped lightly against the table. "Alright. That chapter's closed."

"Are we done here?" Halle asked.

James wasn't ready to let the evening end. One question still nagged at him. "Halle, do you really still have feelings for Edgar? I want to know what you honestly think."

She didn't hesitate. "Of course I do. Childhood sweethearts. First love. You don't just forget something like that."

Halle had pulled her heart back from Edgar a long time ago, but she'd never be able to erase him from her memory. That was just the truth.

Edgar had occupied at least 20 of her 25 years on this planet. His presence in her life and the sheer intensity of what they'd shared were too enormous to simply discard. She talked about him with sarcasm more often than not, but he'd lived in a part of her that ran deep, and what she felt about him couldn't be summed up in a sentence or two.

James could see she wasn't joking. Rattled, he didn't even begin to cover what he felt now. He was purely and simply pissed off, miserable, and consumed by the burning desire for Edgar, that worthless piece of garbage, to vanish from the face of the earth.

Sitting here now, James could finally understand why Troy had gone off the rails the way he had. When you wanted someone that badly and couldn't have them, it really could drive you out of your mind.