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322 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 3, 2016
After ten years of marriage, two healthy kids, several deployments, and five moves, I could honestly say I loved Jillian and our life together more today than the day we married.
Looking down, she placed a hand on her flat belly. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’m pregnant.” “Seriously?”
That horrible night I’d lost both the baby and my marriage.
Following his return from Iraq, I’d watched those hands clench in anger and punch a hole in the wall after a night of heavy drinking.
Keith hadn’t held me in years, and his touch overwhelmed me.
He looked at my belly. “You were pregnant when I deployed. Did the baby make it? Do I have another kid?” I swallowed past the lump in my throat and shook my head. “No, she didn’t make it.”
The army, not the boys and me, became his family.
“I just don’t want you blaming yourself. I can’t live through that again. Losing Marcus was horrible, but watching you blame yourself made it worse.”
“Jills, tell me how I made it worse.” I licked my lips and took a deep breath. “Okay. Basically, you blamed yourself and became very angry. You started drinking all the time and didn’t want to be around us anymore.”
“Whatever.” Matt kicked a pebble down the sidewalk. “I wonder if he remembers her.” “Who?” “That reporter. Lyla Gray.”
And what exactly did Keith remember about the woman who not only witnessed my brother’s death but widened the crack in my marriage?
Lyla’s stomach tightened with guilt. She’d always felt partly responsible for Keith’s divorce. Not just because of the night he’d spent at her house but because of what happened out in the desert when Jillian’s brother died.
She needed to stop using Avery as an excuse and end things with Ronnie. She’d never meant to become involved with a married man. Never meant to have a daughter with him.
“Believe me. Both his mother and I tried to stop his downward spiral, but he didn’t want to be helped. We were there for him, and I tried to get him into counseling, but the more I tried to help, the angrier he became. All he wanted was to be left alone.”
“Did you want to say something, Matt?” He hesitated. “A man shouldn’t make promises he can’t keep.”
Vicki drove me to the hospital while Bianca stayed with Matt and Drew.”
“I kept trying to call, but you wouldn’t answer. When I finally got ahold of you, it was Lyla who answered your phone that night.” “Lyla?” “Lyla Gray, the reporter embedded with your unit. Do you remember her?”
“Are you saying I cheated on you with Lyla Gray?”
Having you spend the night with Lyla, even if the two of you were only talking, destroyed us.”
My brother had joined the army to serve his country, not to die a pointless death because of some egotistical maniac showing off to his mistress.