Chapter 9 #2
“No, you aren’t.” He gave a quiet laugh and glanced at Sadie as though Abby had said something unreasonable under her sister’s influence. “You’re hurt and angry. I understand that, but you don’t end nine years on a front porch after one night.”
“You had hundreds of nights to think about what this would do.” Abby stepped forward and held out the ring. “I only needed one.”
Hudson did not take it. “Put that away.”
“It’s yours.” Abby extended her hand farther. “I don’t want it.”
“You’re humiliating yourself.” His voice remained low, but the tenderness had vanished. “Do you honestly think any of this makes you look strong?”
Sadie shifted beside the door. “Careful, Hudson.”
He ignored her. “Abby, you have spent your entire life making decisions based on how you feel in the moment, and then I’m expected to deal with the consequences. I’m trying to protect you from doing that again.”
“Which decisions?” Abby asked as she kept the ring in her open palm. “Choosing you?”
The question struck deeper than she intended. Hudson’s face tightened around the bruise.
“Choosing Evan last night,” he said. “Leaving with a man who had just assaulted me. Letting him bring you here so Sadie could fill your head with whatever she has wanted to say for years.”
“Evan didn’t choose where I went.” Abby heard the steadiness in her voice and held on to it. “I asked him to bring me here.”
“Of course he made you think it was your idea.” Hudson shifted the flowers into one hand and reached for her with the other. Sadie moved between them before his fingers crossed the threshold.
“Do not touch her,” Sadie said as she braced one hand against the doorframe. “You were warned about that last night. And I’ve got a mean right hook too. Just try me.”
Hudson looked at her with open contempt. “Were you there?”
“No, but I heard all about it. And the hotel cameras were.” Sadie nodded toward his bruised mouth. “If you plan to use that lip to threaten Evan with pressing charges, make sure the recording doesn’t show you shoving him first.”
For the first time since arriving, uncertainty disturbed Hudson’s expression. He recovered by turning back to Abby.
“This is exactly why we should talk without an audience,” he said. “Everything I say is being twisted into something ugly.”
“You slept with Makayla for eighteen months.” Abby forced herself to say the words without lowering her voice. “There is no version of that sentence Sadie made uglier.”
Hudson looked toward the neighboring houses. “Keep your voice down.”
“Why?” Abby followed his gaze and saw only closed curtains and rain-darkened lawns. “Are you ashamed of what you did, or are you only ashamed that someone might know?”
“I’m trying to preserve some dignity for both of us.” He drew a slow breath through his nose, the gesture he used when he wanted credit for remaining calm. “What happened with Makayla was complicated.”
“You told her you loved her.” Abby watched his face for some sign that the words troubled him. “I read the messages.”
“She was unstable.” Hudson glanced down at the roses as if searching for patience among them. “She needed reassurance, and I told her what she wanted to hear.”
“You sent her money.” Abby tightened her fingers around the ring. “Those weren’t loans.”
“Because Evan couldn’t provide the kind of life she expected.” His eyes hardened when he said Evan’s name. “I was helping someone you claimed to love.”
“You took her to hotels.” Abby heard Sadie draw a slow breath beside her. “You planned those trips together.”
“I made mistakes.” Hudson lifted his injured face toward her. “I’m admitting that. You’re the one refusing to have an adult conversation about why they happened.”
Abby felt Sadie tense beside her, but she kept her attention on Hudson. “Why did they happen?”
The question appeared to surprise him. He had prepared for accusations, tears, and pleas for details, but Abby’s calm request left him without an obvious defense.
“We had become disconnected,” he said after a pause. “Everything between us was about the wedding or your family or what you thought I should be doing differently. Makayla listened without judging me.”
Abby remembered every evening she had abandoned her own frustration because Hudson’s workday had been difficult. She had watched him criticize Makayla’s clothes, manners, voice, and upbringing while continuing to seek the admiration he claimed only she offered.
“You said she was shallow,” Abby replied. “You called her cheap.”
“Because she is.” Hudson spoke before he could stop himself. His expression changed when he realized what the answer revealed.
“You’ve been sleeping with her since before you proposed to me, and you still talk about her like that.” Abby was incredulous. She closed her fingers around the ring again. “Did you ever plan to leave me?”
Hudson’s gaze sharpened. “I came here to save our relationship, and you’re interrogating me about hypotheticals.”
“It isn’t hypothetical to Makayla.” Abby thought of her friend’s final message. “Did you tell her you would leave me?”
“Whatever I said to manage Makayla has nothing to do with what I feel for you.” Hudson stepped closer, stopping when Sadie shifted her weight. “I chose you every day for nine years.”
“You didn’t think she was good enough for you…
” Abby could see the distinction now, though saying it made her throat ache.
“But you wanted someone your parents approved of, someone who made your home comfortable, someone who could be a society hostess, someone who believed your explanations without questioning them. But you wanted Makayla too, so you kept both of us.”
Hudson’s face lost its practiced concern. “You have no idea what I wanted.”
“Then tell me.” Abby waited, though his expression warned her that any answer would become another accusation. “What did you want?”
“I wanted you to stop making every difficult period in my life about your feelings.” His control fractured around the words.
“My father has been threatening my position for months. The merger has been a disaster. I have carried pressure you couldn’t begin to understand, and whenever I came home, you needed reassurance about flowers or seating charts or whether I remembered some detail no one gives two shits about. ”