“Then I will just have to have an annulment then,” she hissed, looking at him as if he were nothing more than a disappointment.
Pain cracked through Cedric’s body; so sharp and unbidden that for a moment, he was sure that Deborah had struck him. He pulled in a shallow breath through his nostrils as his world went sideways and heat flamed in his chest.
“You can…you cannot mean it,” he rasped, narrowing his eyes as he tilted his head to his side. “You are just angry. At me. Forsomething I said or did. That is fine, we can discuss whatever it is, but-”
“It is not what you have said or done,” Deborah cut him off, hurt slithering between the cracks of rage in her eyes, “It is what you have not done. You have not fulfilled the end of your arrangement.”
“I just need more time!” Cedric insisted, his deep voice beginning to quake as he reached out a hand toward her.
Deborah stepped back as if his touch was poisonous, shaking her head.
“You keep distracting me. I cannot have it anymore,” she answered, then sniffled.
Cedric watched as her eyes began to grow red, but she turned her face from his quickly as if she, too, knew betraying tears were about to fall.
“I need an annulment,” she said quietly, her small shoulders beginning to quake. “I need to finally finish what I started.My way.”
Cedric tried to swallow, but found it impossible around the large lump in his throat that was suddenly there.
“Adeline,” he managed to rasp out.
Deborah’s chin fell to her chest, and for a moment, Cedric almost gripped a bit of hope that his wife’s mind could still be changed.
“I will tell her myself,” Deborah answered quietly after a while. “It should come from me.”
Cedric shook his head, no longer able to talk; barely able to breathe. It was as if someone had dropped a cannonball on his chest, and it was crushing him with a tortured slowness.
“In fact, I shall go do that right now,” Deborah hoarsely whispered, walking away from him. From their marriage. From their life.
“Goodbye, Cedric.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Kathy said you wished to speak to me, Aunty Deborah?”
Deborah did not turn away from the half-filled luggage. She couldn’t. One look at the little girl she’d grown to love would surely have her tears falling and her momentum stopping. Shehadto keep moving.
“Yes,” Deborah answered, placing more belongings in her luggage. She cleared her throat, trying to swallow the thick lump in her throat that made her voice sound as raw and in pain as she felt.
“Oh, are we going on another trip?” Adeline asked, coming closer.
Deborah’s heart cracked. The girl sounded so carefree, so ready to go along with whatever Deborah was about to tell her.
“Just me,” Deborah forced out, willing her burning, unblinking eyes not to leave her open luggage, “I am afraid I have to leave, Adeline.”
“Oh, that is no fun,” Adeline pouted from behind her. “You will not be gone long, though, will you? We have made so many plans. Besides, you cannot leave Uncle on his own. He is so poorly on his own. I swear he depends on your presence to breathe.”
Guilt lashed at Deborah’s heart as she heard Adeline’s hopeful, jesting tone, and the tears she had been trying to keep at bay began to pour hot and salty down her cheeks.
“Adeline, darling,” she sobbed, “I am so-”
Deborah cupped her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the heart-wrenching cry attempting to leave her throat, and finally turned. Adeline’s gaze was hard and accusing as she met her eyes, as if the little girl suddenly knew everything she was about to say.
“Do not dare,” Adeline’s voice shook as she shook her head, “Do not dare tell me you are leaving us!”
Deborah’s sob broke free as she bowed her head.
“I have to,” she croaked out. “I have to find a way to bring my sister back to me. It has been too long!”