Accepting the Moon: Prequel (Moonrising Book 1) by K. S. Haigwood Page A
Authors: K. S. Haigwood
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that I had decided to stay and talk things through. I suppose he still thought he had a fighting chance. “I know. I don’t know you, either, Mena, but I want to. We’ve grown apart. We’ve changed—everyone changes,” he stressed.
A collage of wedding photos hung above the fireplace mantle behind him, and I stared at the frames without really seeing the memories frozen behind their glasses. A girl’s wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but I barely even remembered mine.
“This wasn’t in the plan,” I said. “This was not supposed to happen to me.” I knew that seemed so cliché of me to say, and I knew people cheated on their spouses all the time, but I honestly never thought it would happen to me.
“I know,” he said again. “I’m so sorry, baby. Please—”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Please? Please what, Marc? Forgive you?” I laughed sarcastically. “How? Tell me how I am supposed to ever be able to trust that you won’t do this again.” I shook my head. “No—I don’t think I will forgive you for this—not today… not ever.”
I think he realized in that moment that I had no intentions of staying with him. Did he think I was ignorant?
Swallowing hard, he took a hesitant step toward me. “We can get through this, baby. I promise I will never hurt you again. I’ll make this better if you’ll just let me. I love you,” he whispered, and even managed to keep eye contact with me.
How many lies had he told that I never saw through to the real man he was: a deceiving, mind-manipulating, cheating bastard.
Yes. He thought I was ignorant. And I guess I had been, but I wasn’t going to be any longer. I refused to lie to myself every day while knowing, deep down inside, that he would do it again and again.
I let him take another step closer while I turned the two-carat diamond engagement ring to the inside of my hand with my thumb.
“How could you do this to me, to us?”
He shook his head and moved into my personal space. “I didn’t realize how much you mean to me. I know now. It will never happen again,” he said, his voice shaking with emotion. If I hadn’t caught him in so many lies already, I might have believed he was genuinely upset. “I need you, Mena.”
“You should have thought of that before you put your wedding band in your pocket and screwed someone other than your wife!”
In an instant, his expression turned sour and I couldn’t get my arm up in time to block the blow from the back of his hand across my cheekbone. I was too stunned to cry out. He had never hit me before.
I whimpered as my hand hovered shakily over the throbbing area under my eye. I knew I needed to pull myself together. I couldn’t let him beat me without a fight. I refused to let him have that sort of control over me.
“I hate myself for hurting you like that, Mena, but I said I was sorry, damn it! You should have just accepted the apology and forgiven me. Do you think this is fun for me? Do you think I enjoy hurting you?”
With so much adrenaline rushing through me, it had been difficult to stay calm while he made it sound like him hitting me was my fault. I couldn’t hold it back any longer, and I nearly missed the look of shock in his eyes before my left hand slapped him hard across his right cheek.
Bright red blood poured freely from the long gash my ring had carved in his cheek, and he looked at me in horror as I grinned menacingly at him.
“Explain that to your whore. Your wife is leaving you.”
Chapter 2
Jaxon
Jaxon scanned the growing crowd of the club with guarded eyes.
Puppets, every last damn one of them, he thought.
Shaking his head, he slapped a twenty and the empty old fashioned glass on the bar hard enough to get the bartender‘s attention over the raging, death-metal music that was the club‘s entertainment for the night.
“Another double?” the bartender asked, and Jaxon nudged the glass with the tips of his fingers to encourage
A collage of wedding photos hung above the fireplace mantle behind him, and I stared at the frames without really seeing the memories frozen behind their glasses. A girl’s wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but I barely even remembered mine.
“This wasn’t in the plan,” I said. “This was not supposed to happen to me.” I knew that seemed so cliché of me to say, and I knew people cheated on their spouses all the time, but I honestly never thought it would happen to me.
“I know,” he said again. “I’m so sorry, baby. Please—”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Please? Please what, Marc? Forgive you?” I laughed sarcastically. “How? Tell me how I am supposed to ever be able to trust that you won’t do this again.” I shook my head. “No—I don’t think I will forgive you for this—not today… not ever.”
I think he realized in that moment that I had no intentions of staying with him. Did he think I was ignorant?
Swallowing hard, he took a hesitant step toward me. “We can get through this, baby. I promise I will never hurt you again. I’ll make this better if you’ll just let me. I love you,” he whispered, and even managed to keep eye contact with me.
How many lies had he told that I never saw through to the real man he was: a deceiving, mind-manipulating, cheating bastard.
Yes. He thought I was ignorant. And I guess I had been, but I wasn’t going to be any longer. I refused to lie to myself every day while knowing, deep down inside, that he would do it again and again.
I let him take another step closer while I turned the two-carat diamond engagement ring to the inside of my hand with my thumb.
“How could you do this to me, to us?”
He shook his head and moved into my personal space. “I didn’t realize how much you mean to me. I know now. It will never happen again,” he said, his voice shaking with emotion. If I hadn’t caught him in so many lies already, I might have believed he was genuinely upset. “I need you, Mena.”
“You should have thought of that before you put your wedding band in your pocket and screwed someone other than your wife!”
In an instant, his expression turned sour and I couldn’t get my arm up in time to block the blow from the back of his hand across my cheekbone. I was too stunned to cry out. He had never hit me before.
I whimpered as my hand hovered shakily over the throbbing area under my eye. I knew I needed to pull myself together. I couldn’t let him beat me without a fight. I refused to let him have that sort of control over me.
“I hate myself for hurting you like that, Mena, but I said I was sorry, damn it! You should have just accepted the apology and forgiven me. Do you think this is fun for me? Do you think I enjoy hurting you?”
With so much adrenaline rushing through me, it had been difficult to stay calm while he made it sound like him hitting me was my fault. I couldn’t hold it back any longer, and I nearly missed the look of shock in his eyes before my left hand slapped him hard across his right cheek.
Bright red blood poured freely from the long gash my ring had carved in his cheek, and he looked at me in horror as I grinned menacingly at him.
“Explain that to your whore. Your wife is leaving you.”
Chapter 2
Jaxon
Jaxon scanned the growing crowd of the club with guarded eyes.
Puppets, every last damn one of them, he thought.
Shaking his head, he slapped a twenty and the empty old fashioned glass on the bar hard enough to get the bartender‘s attention over the raging, death-metal music that was the club‘s entertainment for the night.
“Another double?” the bartender asked, and Jaxon nudged the glass with the tips of his fingers to encourage
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