Chapter 9

I stare at him for the longest minute, a lump in my throat and stomach forming, and my fuzzy head still going around in circles. One thing keeps coming to the forefront over and over.

“Do you trust me?”

He never used to. Everything he said and did was because he didn’t. So, I don’t understand why he changed in my absence. It’s an important question.

“Completely.” He says it with heartfelt conviction, no hesitation or thought and a look that swears truth. His eyes are steadfast and focused on mine, an expression that hides nothing, not even adoration, and I shake my head at him, confounded by it. How could he change his opinion so dramatically? The way he is looking at me right now, as though I’m the most perfect woman on the planet, and I can’t have faith in it.

“Why? You didn’t before.” Not even a tiny ounce of trust in me did he once harbour. If his explanation is true, then mistrust was the root of all the evil he did to me. What changed that? And when?