I felt sick even thinking about it. “I don’t think I want to know. Ignorance is bliss, right? Sometimes it makes situations tolerable if you don’t know the finer details.”
“I think you need to give him the benefit of the doubt,” Evie argued. “Given what he was like through all those years with you, do you honestly think he’d mess it up, knowing or hoping you’d come back? It was almost one hundred percent guaranteed you’d return to Piersville—meaning he could fight for you—because of your family. I don’t see him cocking that up.”
Jacinda and I both turned to stare at her.
“Cocking it up?” I asked slowly.
“You’ve been spending time with the delightful Cyn, haven’t you?” Jacinda snorted. “I kinda like that expression.”
Evie stood up, a strangled noise coming from her as she did it. “Will the two of you just freaking focus? We need to get Layla and Mark back together again.”
I held my hands out in front of me and wheeled my chair back. “Uh, no, no. There will be no getting back together for me and that man. That ship’s sailed.”
I was lying out of my ass, but after what’d happened with my family, I was a bit raw still about it all.
Both of them turned to look at me, and I couldn’t say I liked the look in their eyes.
“Oh, yeah?” Jacinda drawled, leaning forward with a smug look on her face. “In that case, why didn’t you divorce him? I also haven’t heard you say that’s what you plan to do.”
Oh, shit.
Evie crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at me. “Yeah. Instead, you’ve thought about the possibility of him being with someone else and admitted you wouldn’t want to know, which means you have enough positive feelings for him for that to hurt.
“I mean, I don’t give a shit about my ex being with someone else. Well, so long as they don’t mess around with my son’s emotions. His dad’s done enough of that to last a lifetime, and we’re only just sorting it out.”
She had a point.
“Do you…” I licked my lips nervously. “Do you think I should get a divorce?”
“Fuck no,” Jacinda cried, throwing her arms up. “Haven’t you been listening? That man was head over heels in love with you for years. He didn’t dip his wick in another candle”—both Evie and I gagged at the analogy— “because he was waiting for you. You don’t divorce that level of commitment, you grab onto it and iron out the creases so you can live happily ever after.”
I made the mistake of taking my eyes off her and staring at the floor while I thought over what she’d just said. The reason it was a mistake was that seconds later, a sharp pain hit me in the middle of the forehead, jolting me out of my musings.
“Did you… flick her?” Evie asked incredulously.
“I did. It was a softer and less violent way of knocking some sense into her. Now, you need to think long and hard about your shit, Layla Townsend. No,” Jacinda yelled, “Layla Montgomery.
“With that name ringing in your ears, think about watching Mark with other women for the rest of your life. Some other woman getting the title of Mrs. Montgomery, going home to him every night, holding his hand, celebrating anniversaries and special occasions with—”
“Okay, okay,” I interrupted, holding my hand up to get her to stop. “I get it.” I hated those scenarios.
She also wasn’t lying about the name Layla Montgomery ringing in my ears. She’d yelled it so loudly that I had a faint ringing in them. “There’s a lot of hurt and issues that need to be sorted out, though. That stuff doesn’t go away overnight.”
If it had, I never would have been able to stay away from him as long as I did. That hurt was real, and it was deep, like a knife constantly stabbing me for four long years. After all of the emotional hell our families had gone through back then, Mark hurting me had been the last blow my heart could handle.
“Things aren’t always what they seem, Layla,” Evie said softly. “You know your side, but do you know his?”
I winced. “No. Well, not all of it.”
I expected her to deal the final blow; instead, it came from Jacinda. “In that case, beautiful girl, I think you need to spend some time thinking about all of it. What caused you to run, the relationship you had back then, what’s happened since, and what it would be like living with all of the possible scenarios of your choices.
“There’s no way in hell you can just let go of the past and the hurt without discussing it with him and making your peace. But you also can’t be expected just to give in and do that immediately.”
She wasn’t wrong there.
“You need to get yourself to a place mentally and emotionally where that discussion can happen, and you’re open to hearing his side.”
Evie wiggled her head like she was agreeing-ish, and I braced myself for what she was about to say.