CHAPTER 60

Her voice trailed off, getting smaller until I could barely hear her over the sound of the restaurant. I reached forward and slid my fingers through hers. I brushed my thumb across the inside of her wrist, and her fingers squeezed around mine.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t be enough for you anymore,” she whispered, looking at our hands. “You had this whole other world opening up to you. There would be concerts and recording sessions. Video shoots and events. None of those I would have been able to do heavily pregnant or with a young baby. I was afraid that you’d find someone else who was thin and beautiful. That you would want Milka but you wouldn’t want me anymore. I was too selfish to deal with that.”

Her words cut through me, and I took a deep breath. Shit, they stung, they burnt. They fucking shattered my heart.

“It was easier to run. Easier to hide. It was easier to push you aside than open myself to the possibility of you doing the same thing to me.”

I exhaled, but it was shuddery, a