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about! People who trusted me.” She stared at him, feeling the
surge of tension from earlier in the day, recalling with fresh
intensity Gladys’s kindness and pity, her escape, and the
nightmarish years with Kevin. “Why can’t you just be happy with
the way things are? Why do you have to push so hard for me to be
the person you want me to be rather than the person that I am?”
He flinched. “I love the person that you are.”
“But you’re making it conditional!”
“I’m not!”
“But you are!” she insisted. She knew she was raising her voice
but she couldn’t seem to stop it. “You have this idea of what you
want in life and you’re trying to make me fit into it!”
“I don’t,” Alex protested. “I simply asked you a question.”
“But you wanted a specific answer! You wanted the right answer,
and if you didn’t get it, you were going to try to convince me
otherwise. That I should do what you want! That I should do
everything you want!”
For the first time ever, Alex narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t do
this,” he said.
“Do what? Tell the truth? Tell you how I feel? Why? What are you
going to do? Hit me? Go ahead.”
He physically recoiled as though she’d slapped him. She knew her
words had hit their mark, but instead of getting angry, Alex set
the dish towel on the counter and took a step backward. “I don’t
know what’s going on, but I’m sorry that I even brought it up. I
didn’t mean to put you on the spot or try to convince you of
anything. I was just trying to have a conversation.”