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C

“Tatum, please…..it’s nothing.” Leila replies, clutching the phone against her chest with trembling hands, her eyes full of fear at the rage in Tatum’s voice.

She hasn’t even read the text from Kelvin to know what it is but she doesn’t want to have any issues with Tatum because of him.

After the recent fight they had because of Kelvin, Tatum went from barely noticing her and giving all his time to Carmela to completely cold towards her, sometimes even ignoring her on purpose.

As much as she is mad at him, as much as she hates the way things are between them, being able to still talk to him, to still spend a little time with him, to be in presence and bask in his smell, it is these little things that give her some sanity in her insane world.

No matter how little attention he gives to her now, she cherishes it greatly, she doesn’t want him to take it away because of his misconceptions about her relationship with Kelvin.

“I thought I made myself clear about this, I don’t want you-”

“Hanging around other men around the pack because I am the Luna and it is bad for your image, I know,” Leila finishes his sentence with a shaky voice.

“So why are you hiding his text? Are you sleeping with him? Is he the one you are in love with?!” Tatum raises his voice.

The phone slips from Leila’s hand to her laps at the shock from Tatum’s words and she doesn’t even glance at it, her cold and now teary eyes just fixed on him.

Her heart sears with a burning pain at his accusation and the accusation in his voice.

How dare he accuse her of such? Real marriage or not, she has been faithful to him.

How could she even see another man when he is the only one that clouds her thoughts? All day, every day, she is thinking of him.

Previously, his thoughts used to fill her heart with joy and gladness but now it only makes her weary and sad.

How long does she want to continue like this?

She’s the one who has to bear the pain of seeing him be intimate with Carmela all day, she’s the one who has to turn a blind eye when Carmela does everything she used to do for him, she’s the one who has to endure the abuse from his mother, taking it all with a pinch of salt, all for his sake and this is what he says

to her?

is:

Is this how worthless and cheap she is in his eyes?

Tatum ignores the look of pain in Leila’s and the tears seeping out of them and he grabs the phone

from her legs, reading the text to himself.

[The new papers are ready, when can you come to sign them?]

He clenches the phone tight in his grip, his eyes narrowed at Leila. He doesn’t need to be told what papers for him to know.

Kelvin’s law firm prepared the one he destroyed.

Is Leila really so determined to divorce him? Does she want to be with Kelvin so bad that she cannot even give him the little time he requested?

A throbbing pain grips his chest even as he asks.

“What papers is he talking about?”

His voice is low, full of pain and cold.

“Our divorce papers,” Leila replies in a stone cold voice, her eyes streaming with painful tears.

Tatum freezes.

The thrumming of his raging heart loud in his own ears. He never thought she would be able to say it to his face. Does she no longer care about him at all?

Leila keeps her face straight despite the tears tugging at her eyes. She doesn’t want to leave him but she is living in a fantasy, Tatum will never be hers.

She has endured enough for him, she can’t do it anymore.

He will never see her for how she truly feels about him, he will never put her first, never take her side, never be there for her.

Let her heart be broken, let it be crushed, it will heal and learn to love another someday, hopefully. Tatum grits his teeth, his chest rising and falling slowly, he doesn’t understand why it hurts so much to hear those words from her lips but she is not going until he says so.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

He clicks the text and replies to Kelvin.

[She changed her mind and I won’t warn you again, stay away from her.]

“What are you doing?” Leila takes the phone from him, looking at the text and looking back at him, in shock.

She was expecting him to let her go, wouldn’t that make it easy for him to be with his true love?

Is there hope for-No! She will not fall into that trap again.

Tatum stands up from the bed, his eyes cold as ice.

“I don’t want to hear a word of this again, you remain Luna until I say otherwise.”

His cold voice washes over Leila and he storms out and as he slams the door, it’s like he’s slamming her heart and she breaks down in tears.

It hurts….it really hurts he won’t love her and he won’t let her go.