I stayed quiet for years, smiling through my mother-in-law’s cruelty, so he’d never have to choose between us. He chose anyway. Just not me.
Lucy
Talk to me, Ryan. That was all I ever asked for. I never asked him to choose between me and his family. His mother did that for me — telling him, to his face, that I simply wasn’t capable of giving the Harris family what it needed.
I waited for Ryan to say no. He didn’t.
It was his composure I fell for first — that quiet, unshakable calm. I thought it meant safety. He gave me that same composure instead — reasonable words, a divorce signed without one argument, wrapped in a settlement generous enough to look like love.
I took the papers. I left the marriage. I left the name. I never imagined the calm I fell for could be the thing that ended us.
Ryan
Marrying Lucy was the first time I ever said no to my mother. It took losing her to realize I should have said more.
One signature. A settlement generous enough to look like love. I called it protecting her. I never asked what she wanted — I just decided, alone, the way I’d been taught to.
Composure was never strength. It was just obedience with better manners.
So I stopped obeying. Walked away from everything that name ever meant — for good. Let the real me be seen. It was the first honest thing I’d ever given anyone. I don’t know if I get to ask for another chance. But I’m done asking for it quietly.
Titles in the Begging for a Second Chance series include: If You Forget Me ~ Talk to Me ~ Stop Taking Me for Granted ~ Stop Treating Me Like a Footnote ~ Stop Showing Me Off Like a Trophy ~
This is a no-spice romance, perhaps with closed-door or fade-to-black scenes. Tension and kisses might be involved.
