[107]

BEATRICE:

My ex-husband pulled my hand and kissed it. “Beatrice. Take a chance on me. I beg you.” Then, my eyes widened seeing how he knelt in front of me.

A gasp escaped my lips. “What are you doing? Will you stand? What if your son will see you? Have you no sense of shame? You are a CEO of a well-known company and you just kneel like that? What is wrong with you?”

I slapped his arms in an attempt to make him stand, but he did not move.

“You’re embarrassing me, Drake.”

Lifting his head, he smiled at me. “If my son sees me right now, he will see a man who manned up to his mistakes and is willing to bear the consequences of his actions. My son will think that it’s fine to lower yourself down and admit that sometimes, it is our fault, too. That’s the values that I want him to learn from me, Beatrice.”

He looked at me with pure agony and humility while kneeling.

He looked so sincere.

“Please, Beatrice?”

I pulled my hand away. “Groveling will not change anything at all, Drake. In the en