Jaded Wife
To Have & To Hold, Book 4
Ten years of marriage. Five years of trying. Zero babies.
Marlowe's biological clock is screaming, her bank account is bleeding, and her marriage is suffocating under the weight of monthly disappointments. When Björn finally admits he can't keep chasing the dream of parenthood, Marlowe leaves.
Two months apart feels like a death. But Marlowe won't go back to a man who's given up on their dream. She's accepted that motherhood means doing it alone. Until the adoption agency calls with news of a newborn girl who could be theirs.
There's only one problem. Björn won't agree to it.
Desperate and willing to do anything, Marlowe strikes a deal with her husband: move back home, play the perfect couple for the home study, and maybe, just maybe, they can both get what they want. Björn agrees, hoping the time together will remind Marlowe why she fell in love with him. But reconnecting proves harder than either of them expected. Every touch is loaded with longing. Every conversation risks reopening wounds they're both trying to hide.
As Marlowe and Björn navigate the fragile space between reconciliation and ruin, they'll discover that sometimes the greatest threat to a marriage isn't infertility or broken dreams. It's the silence between two people who've forgotten how to listen.
It was hard for her even to look him in the eye, even though she loved him still, and yet he pulled her onto the dance floor, not seeming to care. She allowed him to guide their steps, knowing full well that giving any sign of reluctance was sure to pour gasoline into the brushfire of gossip that was always raging here in Valleyfield. If anyone suspected there was a rift between them, all and sundry would be hearing about it by morning.
“What do you think about the music?” Björn asked into her hair. His belly vibrated as he gave a soft chuckle. “Remember how, at our wedding, the power kept going out and we could barely make it through our first dance?”
Marlowe remembered. There’d been something wrong with a breaker, and while the superintendent at the hotel where they’d held their ceremony frantically tried to fix it, their first dance got broken into sound bites of twenty seconds or so, until the small party of guests got fed up, told the DJ to shut the music off, and they all clapped and sang the popular lyrics of the song so they could finish their dance.
The memory made her throat tighten, but she refused to allow Björn to deflect her justifiable anger toward him. No way did he get to act like he hadn’t dashed her hopes and dreams. Like everything was okay between them.
“I’m filing for legal separation,” she told him softly.
