CHAPTER 24
Gabrielle
I don’t like the way I feel in Dilvan’s presence. One glass of wine down and I’m not the slightest bit relaxed. I keep sensing that he’s going to reach across the table and slap me if I don’t accept his apology. Before I realize what I’m doing, I glance up at him and catch his intense gaze.
“Did you hear me?” he asks. “I said I’m sorry.”
I shrug.
“You have nothing to say to that?”
“No.”
“Come on, Gabrielle. I’m trying.”
He’s trying…
He has some nerve to open his mouth and say some mess like that.
“You’re trying what?” I ask.
“To make amends with you.”
“Dilvan, all the apologies in the world won’t be enough to cover what you did to me. You humiliated me, and—”
“Listen,” he interrupted. “We have to start over from somewhere.”
“No, we don’t. What makes you think I want to start over with you? I’m not good enough, remember? I’m too ugly, too black, too stupid to be your wife.”
“And I just apologized to you for the things I’ve said and done.”
I shake my head and cross my arms in defiance.
Dilvan blows a frustrated breath. “If you give me another chance, I promise I will make things right. I’ll be a better man for you.”
This conversation baffles me. It makes me wonder what’s behind his change of heart. Before, I wasn’t good enough. Now, he wants to give me the world. To be better.
“Why now?” I ask, not because I’m seriously considering getting back with him, but for my own knowledge. “Why do you want to be good to me now?”
“When I found out what you did for my father, it made me realize how stupid I am and how special you are. I don’t deserve you, Gabrielle. I don’t. But I’m asking you for a chance to prove my love.”
Before I can stop myself, I’m laughing out loud. He didn’t just say the word love, did he? He couldn’t have. Ain’t no love in that man, and there never was. I take that back – he does have love, but it’s only for himself and his perfectly waxed body.
“You’re right about one thing, Dilvan,” I say. “Oh, wait...I’m sorry. Did you still want me to call you my lord, or is Dilvan acceptable now?” I ask him, eyebrows raised.
He sighs heavily – sounds like a precursor to awakening the evil that lives inside him.
Meanwhile, I’m inwardly smiling. I have what it takes to stand up to him now. If only I would’ve done this months ago.
I continue, “You said you don’t deserve me, and that’s precisely the reason why you don’t have me.”
“So, you don’t love me, Gabrielle? You don’t feel anything for me?”
“I used to,” I say honestly, because I did care about him, confusing his abuse with love. I foolishly thought the way Dilvan treated me was how he loved, and as his wife, I was supposed to accept that.
“Do you feel anything for me now?” he asks. “If there is a microscopic bit of love in your heart for me, we owe it to each other to give this thing another go.”
Another three months of torture? No thanks.
“No. I don’t feel anything for you anymore,” I tell him as I stand. “Goodbye, Dilvan.”
“Gabrielle, wait...”
“Goodbye!”
It feels freeing to walk away, to officially put an end to this turbulent relationship that has been hanging over my head for months. Now it’s over.
For good.