Build And Break novel Chapter 59

Angela gasped inaudibly. Her heart skipped a beat or two. Her body felt numb. Her bare feet clenched to the soil beneath her feet to hold her body steady.

Steven pulled back enough to look her face completely. The stun her saw across her face mirror his own. He just asked her to marry him. He hadn't even thought about that before. And now that he said it, he didn't even have second thoughts.

"Marry me, Angela." Steven repeated to her, to himself, with much more definition than before.

Within a span of a few seconds, Angela's mind raced through a hundred memories from her past. She began from the beginning, from the day her father informed her she was to have dinner with Steven Morris, she remembered the actual dinner and the mesmerizing kiss that followed, remembered the first time he introduced her to his friends as his girlfriend, then as his fiancee, remembered their wonderful wedding, their first night as husband and wife in their beautiful new house, the countless times they had dreamed of their future with two kids, a boy and a girl, remembered the day Steven had departed for his week in Europe, the day he came back and the same day he divorced her. She remembered being welcomed in Tony, Grace and Jimmy's home like family, remembered the day Grace noticed her paleness and suggested she was pregnant, the day she went to her first doctor's appointment and saw the tiny life she had growing inside her, the day she went into labour and gave birth to Daniel without his father beside her bed. She remembered her small wedding to Tony, moving out with Tony and baby Daniel to the two rooms that became her home. She remembered the car she was in with Tony flipping endlessly, remembered waking up in a hospital bed and heard Daniel calling her Mama. She remembered the day she found out Daniel's health condition, the endless sleepless nights she had, the hunger she suffered just so she could feed Daniel, the hours in the stinky holding cell after being caught stealing. She remembered the day Steven showed up to bail her out, the day he and her father ordered her back home, the day he met Daniel for the first time, the day he had successfully seduced her and then left her there alone. She remembered the day he was Daniel's donor, the days he came early from work to help her care for Daniel. And then, there was yesterday, last night.

In an instant, Angela knew exactly what she wanted.

She set her hand on the one Steven held over hers and slowly removed his hand away as she shook her head at him.

Like he was just punched in his stomach, Steven stumbled a step backwards. "Angela."

"No, Steven. I can't marry you." Angela spoke the words with strength she had no idea she still had.

Steven just stared at her. Multiple times he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Until he finally asked the one word to all his questions. "Why?"

"Because I have another life than this. The life I built after you. And I'm not letting it go for you."

"You'd rather go back to that poverty than be with me?"

"I'd rather have nothing, then have my heart broken again." Tears pop out of her eyes. "You broke me completely Steve. I had trusted you with my life and then you stole it away. I can't risk that happening again. For Daniel's sake."

"For Daniel's sake?"

"Steve, just take it, please." Angela begged through a sob.

Again, he shook his head. "It only belongs on your hand."

"No. It's been a while since it hadn't. Take it, Steven." She took a step closer to him, to make her extended hand with the ring pinched between her fingers to be closer to his reach.

Steven's hand rose up, took her hand and pulled her body to his, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her to him. "Don't go. Don't leave me, Angela."

Her hand set softly on his face. "You have to let me go. You owe me that."

Steven took a deep breathe. Yes, he owed her that after all he had done to her. Still, he didn't want to let her leave.