The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 253

Chapter 253

CHARLOTTE-

“Do you know how much you hurt me?” I whispered.

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His eyes showed how much the words hit him. He even winced, like they had hurt more than my brother’s fist.

I should have stopped. I did not.

“I have loved you for years, Luca. Waiting. Hoping that you would finally see me. Finally want me. Not those other girls I always saw you around with.”

I saw his face light up the second I said I loved him, only to fall when I mentioned the other girls.

“Char-”

“No.” My voice cracked and I hated it and I kept going anyway. “You broke my heart. I came up with that sex with no strings attached because I wanted to be near you. Because I knew if I didn’t make the first step, you would not notice me. I wanted to feel how it would be to be with you the way you so willingly were with other girls. I wanted you. Only you.”

He took a step closer.

I did not step back this time.

“And then when we finally crossed that line, you have no idea how that made me feel.” Everything blurred. I blinked hard. “For one night I was not the girl in the next room. I was not just your best friend. I was not the girl who checked on you and smiled through the pain when you came home smelling like someone else. I was yours. And I was stupid enough to think that meant something.”

His hands shook as he tried to reach me, then stopped himself.

“It did.” He managed to whisper. “It did, Charlotte. I have not touched another woman since this thing with

us started.”

“You called it a mistake.”

“I was wrong. Scared. Blind. Stupid. You name it.”

I pressed my arms tighter across my chest so I would not reach for the bruise on his jaw. “I asked you. I stood there with my brother behind me and I still asked you, and you nodded that it was a mistake. Do you know what that does to a person who has loved you quietly for years? It tells her she was right to be quiet. It tells her the one time she was brave, she was too much.”

Luca’s mouth opened. Closed.

“I thought you wanted Marco,” he said. “I thought if I asked you to stay I would be trapping you with the wrong brother. I would rather you hate me than stay and wish I was him.”

I could not believe him.

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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife

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“I told you I wouldn’t mind dating him. Once. I only did it because I was tired of seeing you with other girls and wanted to test your reaction. I wanted one second where you looked at me, actually looked at me.

e I was more than just a friend.”

His face broke a little.

Good. He needed to know what I went through for years.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “I swear, Charlotte, I didn’t have a clue. This wasn’t me ignoring your feelings. It wasn’t. I would never do that to you.”

“I didn’t want you to find out like this. Not from Marco in a bar because I was crying and he was the only Vescari who sat down and tried to comfort me.” I wiped my cheek with the side of my hand, angry at the tears for existing. “You broke my heart. And you did it on purpose this time. By telling me it was all a mistake.”

His voice was rough, filled with pain. “I can’t undo the girls. I can’t undo not realizing sooner. I can’t undo telling you it was a mistake when I knew it wasn’t. What I can do is stand here and tell you the truth I should have said the moment I realized I no longer saw you as just my friend.”

Callum shifted by the pillar. I felt him without looking.

“Then say it,” I whispered. “Quickly. I have a plane to catch.”

Luca looked at me like the terminal behind me was a finish line he was terrified of.

“It was not a mistake,” he said. “You were not a mistake. Every night I had you was the first time any of it meant anything, and I was too much of a coward to call it that. I’m still too much of a coward, because if I call it love I have to admit I have been hurting you for years and still expect you to stay by my side. Nothing hurts more than knowing I hurt the girl that means more to me than anyone or anything else in this world.”

He paused and took a step closer. We were a few inches apart now.

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