Chapter 21

 

 

With each step Harding took upstairs, he hoped he’d find Savannah sleeping. Yet, he had a feeling she wouldn’t be because he knew her – knew how persistent she was when she wanted something. Like showing up here, for example. He told her outright that she wasn’t invited. Still, that didn’t stop her from finding her way to Dante’s house. He still hadn’t found out how she obtained Dante’s address, but he had a suspicion his sisters were to blame, especially by the way they were whispering to each other at the dinner table right after Savannah had shown up.

He opened the door and saw her lying on the bed with pillows crowded behind her back and the TV remote next to her. She sat up when the door closed and said, “I was wondering if you were coming back.”

He didn’t respond. He just continued on to the bathroom and closed the door. How was this going to work? He could go back in there and listen to her as she told him what he wanted to hear, or he could remain firm in his stand that the marriage was over and she needed to go back home to her family – the family she’d chosen over their marriage. He decided to do the latter.

 

Dressing in comfortable clothes after a quick shower, he stepped back into the bedroom. She was still sitting up on the bed, her hair all beautiful, cascading down to her breastbone and she had on a thin, silky material for a nightgown. She was attentive to his every move. He couldn’t make the slightest movement without feeling her eyes on him.

He settled for a chair in the bedroom instead of actually sitting on the bed or making any attempt to lie down on it. He didn’t want to be that close to her.

Savannah looked at him and sighed, noticing his refusal to make eye contact with her.

“Two years ago, I never would’ve guessed we would be in this predicament,” she said.

“What predicament is that?” he asked, leaning back in the chair he’d planned on sleeping in tonight.

“That you would hate me so much. That you wouldn’t even want to sleep in the same bed as me.”

“Yeah, well two years ago, you made me a lot of promises you couldn’t keep.”

“Okay. You’re right. I got caught up with work. I had a few big cases I was working on and—”

“And I wasn’t important. I see that now.” He chuckled. Bitterly so. “Boy, I tell you…it’s amazing how clearly you can see when the fog of what you perceived things to be slowly drifts away.”

“Harding, why must you be argumentative?”

His eyes opened to see that she had scooted to the edge of the bed. Her feet were dangling – pink-painted toenails barely touching the floor. “I’m not being argumentative. At least, I don’t think I am. I’ve been reasonable with you for a long time and the only reason I’m talking to you now is because you’ve chosen to invite yourself here even after I told you not to. So if you think my tone is argumentative, counselor, then maybe you ought to stop talking to me.”

Savannah glared at him. “You were right. Is that what you want to hear because I’ve said it countless times. You. Were. Right.”

“About what? You being ashamed of me, or you not willing to give up your lifestyle for me?”

“Neither. I’m not ashamed of you and I’ve already given up my lifestyle for you, Harding. I told my parents about you before I left Charleston, and like they threatened to do, they cut me off. Now, all I have is you, and you don’t want me.”

“It’s not that I don’t want you, Savannah. Gosh, for the last six months, I’ve been begging you to let go of your parents so we could live our lives. But you never did. Now you’re telling me you have, and I’m telling you it’s too late.”

“Why is it too late?”

“Because I see now that what I was asking you to do should’ve been something you did of our own volition, especially if you really loved me like you said you did. And now that the smoke has cleared, I also see how I was wrong. I mean, who am I to ask you to give up your family and your livelihood for me? I can’t do that. That’s what I mean when I say it’s over.” He sat straight up in his chair and stared into her shocked eyes when he said, “I love you, Savannah, but I can’t be with you anymore.”

Stunned, Savannah could feel her hands shaking as her nerves went berserk. He was really ending this. When he said it was over before, she chalked it up to him being angry. But he wasn’t angry now. He was as calm as a fall leaf dwindling slowly to the ground while he looked at her with intense, I-mean-business eyes.

“What do you expect me to do, Harding? Throw my hands up and walk away? After I’ve done everything you’ve requested of me, you expect me to give up on us?”

He knew that wasn’t going to happen. She’d gotten far in life because of her parent’s wealth but also due to her strong determination. She wouldn’t throw her hands up and walk away. It wasn’t in her genes to give up. That’s why he wasn’t so sure she’d told her parents anything about them. She wanted the best of both worlds – wanted a relationship with her parents and a marriage with him. It wasn’t wrong of her to want that simple normality, but unfortunately, it came down to a choice – a choice she should not have had to make.