My Husband Realized He Loved Me After I Stopped Loving Him Chapter 09

My Husband Realized He Loved Me After I Stopped Loving Him Chapter 09

Theo really hadn’t been kidnapped by Grant. 

But he really had been knocked out by Grant’s 

men. 

It took me a while to understand: he was still 

testing me. Still gambling. 

The moment Theo woke up, he came looking for 

1. me. 

He burst in drenched in sweat, grabbed my wrist, 

and pulled me to my feet. 

“Let’s go. Let’s go home.” 

I nodded. I didn’t want to spend one more minute 

in that place. 

Grant stood at the far end of the hallway, watching Theo lead me out by the hand. 

He leaned against the wall, looking, for once, almost forlorn. 

As I passed him, he spoke suddenly. “Go with him, 

and I die.” 

My steps stopped. 

“Or stay. And we go back to how we were.” 

I turned to look at him, and something about it 

struck me as absurd enough to laugh. 

“Grant, are you sick? I already made my choice a 

minute ago.” 

“Besides, you’re the one who broke this in the first 

place. You’re the one who did wrong first.” 

“What exactly is this madness you’re pulling now?” 

My words seemed to strike something in him. 

He took two quick steps forward, his voice 

suddenly rushed. 

“Those seven times–none of it was real! I never 

touched any of them!” 

“Every single time it was someone arranged for 

business events, I’d walk them to the room and 

leave. I never once did anything to actually betray 

you.” 

“The eighth time was because of the pregnancy.” 

His voice began to crack. 

“Chloe told me she was carrying my child. At the 

time, I… I just-” 

“You just felt exhausted being with me. You just wanted to know if you could live like a normal person with Chloe. Isn’t that it?” 

I finished the sentence for him. 

“Grant.” I looked at him, my eyes stinging. 

“Do you remember that day–I was on a stretcher, hemorrhaging out, and you knelt on the floor begging me to save your Chloe first?” 

“I- I didn’t know you were pregnant…” 

I cut him off. “From that moment on, you were already dead to me.” 

“Grant, consider it me begging you. I’m letting you go. Let me go too.” 

He froze. Tears fell without warning. 

This was a man who, back when he was testing me, playing this game with me, had bled himself half to death and still managed a confident smile through it all. 

Now he stood there like a child, crying, helpless 

and fragile. 

He opened his mouth, throat working, and finally managed only, “Then… if there’d never been a 

Chloe. If there’d been no her–would you still have 

left?” 

I looked at his tear–streaked face and stayed silent 

for a long time. 

“Even without her, you stopped being the person I 

wanted a long time ago.” 

He closed his eyes, as if that sentence had finally 

crushed him completely. 

After a long while, he opened his eyes again and 

laughed once. 

“I understand. Thank you for still talking to me.” 

He paused, his voice rougher. “Vivian. I’m sorry.” 

“You know–whatever I promise you, I’ll follow 

through on.” 

I didn’t understand what he meant, only that the 

way he looked at me made me restless. 

I turned, took Theo’s hand, and walked out without looking back. 

Just as we were about to get into the car, a 

deafening blast tore through the air nearby. 

A sharp ringing filled my ears; the world spun. 

Theo threw himself over me, his hand covering my 

eyes. 

“Don’t look,” he said, voice shaking. 

I suddenly remembered–three years ago, in that hospital hallway, I’d asked Grant: “What if I were 

really about to die today?” 

He’d answered without hesitation: “Then I’d die 

with you.” 

Whatever he’d promised me–he really had 

followed through on every word. 

In the distance, sirens closed in. Voices shouted. 

Footsteps pounded from every direction. 

I couldn’t process any of it. 

Only one word kept repeating in my head. 

Lunatic. 

He really was a lunatic. 

Theo and I set our wedding for the following 

spring. 

The day before the ceremony, a package arrived. 

A plain kraft–paper envelope, no return address, but I recognized the handwriting the instant I saw it. 

Inside: a letter, and a document. 

The asset transfer agreement for everything under Grant Ashworth’s name, every beneficiary line filled in with mine. 

I threw the letter away without reading it. 

I donated the assets–every last cent–to the Children’s Mental Health Foundation. 

The sun was bright on our wedding day. 

Theo stood at the end of the aisle, smiling at me. 

I turned, and saw him reaching his hand out to me. 

The moment I took it, I couldn’t help but smile too. 

Nobody’s born a lunatic. 

They just haven’t met the right person yet.