The Fifth Year of Marriage to Him novel Chapter 89

Chapter 89

288 Vouchers

He kneaded for a full half–hour. She grew drowsy by the end. When he draped a blanket over her, the movement startled her awake. Only then did she realize he’d finished.

“I’ll go

wash up.

His hands were coated in ointment.

Lucille rolled over, facing the wall as she settled back to sleep.

He returned quickly, lying close behind her on the cramped bed.

She instinctively shifted inward. His arm snaked around her waist. “Not asleep?”

Even if I was, you’d have woken me!

“Asleep.”

She replied.

“Talking in your sleep?”

He pressed closer.

Fine. She’d stay silent.

“Need to tell you something.”

He said suddenly. “Don’t laugh.”

What could he possibly say that would make her laugh?

“I was a dumb kid. Used to sneak my handheld game console under the covers. You girls ever play those? Grandma caught me awake once. She said, ‘Kids who are asleep keep their mouths open. If it’s shut, they’re faking.‘ So I… just popped mine open right then. Grandma laughed about it till I was ten…”

Lucille didn’t laugh.

Couldn’t.

11.30

Chapter 89

*† 288 (Vouchers

This was the first time in five years of marriage he’d volunteered so many words.

Before, she’d been the one talking desperately–trying to enter his world, to close the distance between them. He’d respond with a flat phrase, never more than three words. Or stay silent. Not a syllable.

Looking back now, those five years felt like her playing the clown, performing her heart out while he watched, seeing only a joke.

She shut her eyes, perfectly still. Just like those thousand–plus days she’d spent as his personal jester, met with indifference.

She’d thought he’d tire of the act eventually. He never did.

Caught off guard, she felt his hand slide under her shirt.

She froze, pressing it down.

“Lucille.”

He whispered. “Let’s… pick up where we left off this morning?”

“How about having a baby?”

When his hand shot up like fire, Lucille panicked and pulled his hand away forcefully, “No,

no.”

“Why not? Didn’t you want a baby before?”

With one forceful move, he flipped over and pinned her down.

If Cedrick had done this before their fifth anniversary, she would have been deeply touched, but now she just found it really ridiculous.

Actually, he knew everything.

He knew she truly wanted a baby, and he knew how much she loved him; he just wasn’t willing–not willing to have a baby with her, and even less willing to love her.

She didn’t know why he had changed so suddenly now.

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