False Pretenses - Kathy Herman [118]
“No. I’m wide awake.”
“Have you decided whether you’re going back to Houma in the morning?”
“I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Zoe turned and started to go back into the bedroom.
“Wait!” Pierce heard himself say. “Come sit with me.”
She hesitated for a few moments and then walked over to the couch, barefoot and childlike, and sat next to him.
It was all he could do not to pull her into his arms. Instead, he folded his hands in his lap.
“The truth is, I need to make a decision, and I’m torn.”
“I lied to you. How can you trust me now? I get it.”
“I don’t think you do.” Pierce blinked the stinging from his eyes. “You are half of my heart.…” His voice failed, and he paused to pull himself together. “If I leave you, I leave a part of myself. When we got married, we became a new creation. That’s what the priest said—a new creation. We’re one. You can’t separate that creation … without ripping it apart.…” Pierce stopped and swallowed the emotion that stole his voice again.
“I know I did a lot of things wrong,” Zoe said. “Please believe that I never intended to hurt you. I just didn’t want to lose you. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”
His father’s voice resounded in his head. She got herself in over her head and made some bad mistakes.… But I’ve seen how the two of you are together. I know love when I see it.
“Can you ever forgive me?”
Pierce sighed. Could he? “I’m working on it, babe.”
Zoe cocked her head and looked up at him. “You said babe.”
He reached over and took her hand. “It’s going to take time to sort this out. But I just realized something: I’d rather suffer through it with you than suffer alone without you.”
Zoe’s eyes brimmed with tears that soon spilled down her cheeks. “I don’t know what to say. I never expected this. What changed your mind?”
“Some things Dad said.” Pierce took his thumb and wiped away her tears. “I’ve touched your soul, Zoe. There’s a part of you that no one else has been privy to but me. It has nothing to do with the name you had. Or what family you were born to. That’s the part of you I don’t want to lose.”
“Thank God,” she whispered.
“I can’t promise you this is going to be easy. Or that there won’t be times when I’m overwhelmed by it. But whatever we have to do to fix this can’t be any harder than living without you.”
Zoe let out a sob and then another and another until it seemed a dam of emotion had broken and the tears could not be stopped.
Pierce pulled her into his arms, trying for the first time to imagine all the pain she had been carrying, beginning with the horrible abuse she suffered in her parents’ home, to the helplessness of being dependent on Mrs. Woodmore, to the theft of the ring, the fabrication of Zoe Benoit, the dishonest money that bought Zoe B’s. Then living the past five years with the fear that Pierce might leave her if he found out. Her pain became his pain, and he let his tears fall and mingle with hers.
After a few minutes, his tears stopped, and he just held her. Finally he said, “We should get Ethan’s advice. Maybe he can hook us up with a counselor. You open to that?”
Zoe nodded, her sobbing softer.
“I already know he’s going to say we need to get God involved,” Pierce said, “though God must be helping us already or we’d both be dead. Vanessa, too.”
Zoe stopped crying and rested her head on his chest. “I’d give anything to be as comfortable with God as Ethan and Vanessa seem to be. They pray like He’s right there with them and they know He’s going to answer.”
Pierce took the bottom of his T-shirt and dried Zoe’s face. “And He did answer. More than once.”
“When I saw you in the bathroom, I prayed you wouldn’t get hurt. But I had no idea what you were going to do.” Zoe cupped his cheek in her hand. “That took courage.”
“More like fear. I overheard what the creep said he was going to do to you. I knew I had to act while I could.” The corners of Pierce’s mouth twitched. “Maybe there’s some poetic justice here. Whatever happens to this Jones character,