DARK HEARTS - BILLIONAIRE MARRIAGE CONTRACT ROMANCE

ALL I HAD LEFT

"Jackson, what the hell?" I glare at him.

"I can explain." He holds up his hands to calm my frantic nerves.

"You need to."

"All I wanted to do was make sure Alexander was the real thing. Especially with him being in your life and around our son. I wanted to be sure he was in it for the right reasons, and this wasn't him trying to take advantage of you." Jackson explains.

"That is not your place." I scoff.

Why does he even care, all of a sudden?

"As Elijah's father... I beg to differ. I have a responsibility to our son to make sure he's safe and around good people."

"And at what point did you decide Alexander wasn't a good person? When he decided to take an interest in me?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Evie." He scoffs. "When it comes down to you and Mary, she still wins... hands down." He delivers another self-esteem killing blow to my heart.

That isn't even what I meant.

"I love her more than anything in this world, including you, and I always will. This is about Elijah and the kind of men you bring around our son."

I'm so confused right now that I don't know how to respond. Because the hope I had that Jackson may have actually loved me at some point, and wasn't using me to get to Mary, has just vanished. Replaced by the familiar hollow ache in my chest that I've dealt with for the past eleven years. Wondering what I could have done wrong, and why I wasn't good enough for him to love back.

Not that I want him to love me now.

I've just spent the last eleven years at my lowest. Believing I was unworthy of love. That I will never be good enough for anyone.

That I will always be second best with Mary coming in first.

That I don't have value worthy of keeping the attention of someone like Jackson. Let along Alexander.

Especially Alexander.

Surely, a man like him would be out of my league... out of my reach, even. If Jackson, who wasn't as accomplished or as wealthy, didn't want me.

Right?

Damn that.

I may not be Jackson's cup of tea, but maybe it's a good thing. If his cup of tea is the likes of Mary, then I dodged a blue-eyed bullet. And he never deserved me in the first place.

Even when he had me.

Letting his comment roll off my shoulders, I ask him, "Why did you punch him in the face?"

"He's an arrogant asshole. That's why I punched him in the face." He paces the floor.

In other words, he allowed Alexander to get underneath his skin.

"And I'd do it all over again if given the chance. I don't want him around our son, Evie. So, whatever this is between you... you need to decide if it's worth losing your son over." Jackson gives me an ultimatum.

What the hell just happened?

Without waiting to hear my reply, he leaves that ultimatum dangling in the air before me. The ball squarely in my court. I could either stop seeing Alexander, who I'm currently married to, or he'll try to take my son from me.