The True Luna's Forbidden Temptation - Chapter 40: Chapter 40

I take the stairs two at a time, each step a rejection. The house is silent—maybe as stunned as I am. Only the echo of my footfalls and the faint shiver of a crystal vase I nearly shattered remain.
I hear Tyler hot on my trails. “Analise, wait,” he calls. I turn around, keeping my face stoic. He doesn’t look like my husband anymore. He looks like a stranger—a complete stranger I wouldn’t trust with anything. “Do you know how hard it’s going to be for you? Let me help, at least.”
‘This guy is just full of shit!’
“No, Tyler. I’m good.” My voice is flat. Not brittle. Not shaking. Strangely calm.
“Please.” His hand snags the bannister near mine. “Okay, I know, I fucked up, but once upon a time, we were happy, Analise. Let me help—for old time’s sake.”
I look down at him, and all that’s left is pity—not love, not heartbreak, just the kind you feel for something too broken to save. “There is no we.”
He winces but keeps climbing the steps so he can stand closer to me. “Can we talk? Five minutes. I’ll get you an Uber or I’ll drop you off anywhere you want. Just—don’t leave angry.”
I cross my arms. “How should I leave? On my knees? Crawling out like your mother suggested?”
His mouth works before words come. “Don’t say that. You don’t have to leave with nothing. I’ll give you money, if that’s what you need. We’ll do a proper settlement, whatever your lawyer asks—”
“It’s done, Tyler. Everything is a done deal.” I cut in.
“I know,” he says, flushing. “But I’m still willing to give you money. I want you to have a clean start. You don’t have to make this harder.” He rubs his nose, flinching, then steadies himself.
It’s almost funny—his instinct to throw money at me like throwing a bone to a poor, injured puppy.
“Money won’t fix anything,” I say. “Not what you did. And it won’t bring back my baby!”
He shakes his head, voice rising. “I don’t even believe that you were pregnant. Maybe it was a false positive. You didn’t have the signs. No morning sickness. No mood swings.”
“Sure! Because those signs are mandatory, otherwise it’s a false positive!” I roll my eyes.
I cannot believe the tenacity of this guy. Anyway, it’s pointless to keep insisting that I was pregnant! That I lost our baby. He’s going to have a baby with Lorraine anyway. Believing that I didn’t get pregnant, and that I didn’t lose the baby because of him is probably how he comforts himself.
“Come on, Analise. We tried for years. You can’t get pregnant,” he insists.
“Stop it, Tyler!” I raise myself. “Go ahead if you want to believe that! There’s no point anymore. And maybe that’s a good thing. Because I just realize what a scumbag you really are, and I don’t want anything to do with you anymore. Just leave me the fuck alone!”
“Damn it! Why do you have to be so stubborn?” He scratches his hair in frustration. “So you'd rather be a martyr? Walk out with nothing just to prove a point? I'm trying, Analise. I want to do right by you before we separate ways.”
“The right thing would’ve been not cheating on me in the first place,” I say, voice sharp as glass.
“God, just take the money!” I see fear in his eyes—but not for me, but for what people might say if I don’t survive.
“Is this about your conscience?” I ask. “Trying to buy a clean one?”
He opens his mouth. Closes it. He can’t answer.
“I don’t want your help. Or your money. I’m just going to take my stuff, and then I’ll leave. Let’s go our separate ways!”
A door slams below. Vivian’s heels strike the stairs like gunfire. Tanya trails close behind.
Vivian launches in before catching her breath. “You can’t take anything from this house. Every dress, every shoe—Tyler paid for it. You don’t want my son’s money? You don’t need help? Then prove it! Take nothing from this house that was bought with my son’s hard-earned money!”