The Return of Special Forces Queen novel Chapter 17

Carter kept going, "Also, you need to state that Yolande is your close friend, and during the shooting, you were so worried about her safety that you explicitly told me to protect her."

Jocelyn froze. She almost couldn't believe her own ears. "Carter, do you have any shame left at all? How can you even suggest something so repulsive?"

Did he have any idea how completely shattered she felt when he shoved her aside during a shootout, only for her to turn around and see him using his body to shield Yolande?

She had thought that after three years of marriage, even if he didn't love her, there would at least be a shred of mutual respect or basic human decency.

But in that terrifying moment, she realized that when it came to life or death, he wouldn't hesitate to throw her to the wolves!

"Yolande worked incredibly hard to become a pilot! A scandal like this will ruin her reputation and destroy her chances of a promotion," Carter argued frantically.

Jocelyn practically wanted to give him a standing ovation. He was so wildly considerate of Yolande, completely forgetting that when he had hit rock bottom, Yolande had dumped him without a second thought. Meanwhile, his actual wife had stayed by his side, helping him build his business from scratch and suffering through every hardship with him!

"I absolutely refuse," she said flatly.

"What?" Carter stared, seemingly shocked that she would deny him so decisively.

"I'm not going to lie to the public. You and I both know damn well that it wasn't a misunderstanding, and Yolande Sinclair is definitely not my friend!"

His face darkened with rage. "Jocelyn, are you trying to destroy her?"

"You're the one who forgot you were a married man! Your affair is what destroyed her!" she snapped.

"I am not having an affair! I haven't done anything to betray you! We're just friends!"

"I'm not getting a divorce," Carter said defensively. "I haven't forgotten the vows I made at our wedding. I promised I would never fail you!"

That phrase—"never fail you"—sounded like the world's sickest joke to Jocelyn’s ears.

"You aren't refusing a divorce out of loyalty to your vows! You just don't want the public backlash of being a rich CEO who dumped the wife who built his company with him! You want everything—you want the one that got away, and you want to keep your perfect reputation!"

"If you truly never meant to fail me, how could you stand by and let your friends humiliate and belittle me every chance they get? You even bailed on the day I went to bring my parents' ashes home just because Yolande's mother had a sprained ankle! Carter, they were my parents! I couldn't even bring them back to my own home!"

Her barrage of raw grief finally drained the color from his face. Carter looked as though he had been physically struck.

After a long silence, he finally muttered, "I know you've been through a lot. How about this... I'll go with you this weekend to pay our respects. I'll apologize to them for not being there to bring them back."