Read Inked for Free Online Page A

showed up. I was broken and she did everything she could to try and fix me. At first we were just friends and over time we became lovers. After a while I asked her to marry me. I knew that I’d never see you again, but I also knew that I’d never feel for her what I felt for you. I didn’t want to be alone. I wasn’t willing or capable of facing that emptiness again. And so we got married. We’d only been married a few weeks when the fighting started, and it wasn’t long after that that I realized I’d rather be alone than be with someone I despised. One night I came home from work, exhausted. I lifted the sheet to crawl into bed and that’s when I saw it. Not only did she fuck some guy in our bed, but she didn’t even have the decency to hide the evidence. I found a used condom in my bed, Avery, a used condom that some guy wore while he fucked my wife.”
    Avery stared back at Brody in disbelief, very aware of the fact that his hand still rested on her cheek, but she didn’t protest. How could she after hearing that story? Anger coursed through her body. How could that witch be so vicious to someone as gentle and caring as Brody? The thought sickened her. Not knowing how to respond, Avery reached up and began tracing his sharp jaw line with the pad of her thumb. His coarse, day old stubble felt rough against the tips of her fingers. “So what happened next?”
    “She blamed her affair on you. She told me that it never would’ve happened if I wasn’t so hung up on you.”
    “Me?” Avery gasped. “How in the hell was her having an affair my fault?”
    “That’s what I said,” he replied. “But she insisted that my feelings for you were what drove her to sleep with another man.” Brody looked at Avery with pleading eyes, begging her to understand. “Yes, I was beginning to despise her, but she was my wife, and if there was any chance of fixing things, I was willing to try. I told her that she was wrong, that my feelings for you were a thing of the past, but then I saw you today and now…” he shook his head dismissively “I’m starting to think she may have been right.”
    “Brody…” Avery stammered, at a total loss for what to say next. How could she dispute his claims when she’d felt it too? The same spark that had ignited almost five years ago still burned as strongly now as it did then.
    “I’m sorry, Avery. I didn’t come here tonight to burden you with my problems.”
    “Then why did you come?” she whispered.
    “I needed to know why you never called. And I still think you’re bullshitting me, by the way. But I also wanted to know if you’d see me again, just one time. It doesn’t even have to be a proper date. We could go out for coffee or something.”
    For as much as it broke her heart to say it, Avery knew what she had to do next. “I’m sorry, Brody. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
    “Oh right, the boyfriend,” he spat, raising his voice for the second time and breaking all physical contact between them.
    “I told you to keep your voice down,” she hissed.
    “You know what? You’re right. I should’ve never come here tonight.” Turning on his heel, Brody stalked off in the direction of the elevator. He heard the sound of Avery’s door creaking open and half expected her to slam it shut, but what he heard next was the one word that would forever be branded into his memory.
    “Mama?”
    Inch by painstaking inch, Brody turned back around . Each step he took towards Avery felt like a mile. Standing beside her clutching a blue blanket in one hand and a teddy bear in the other was the cutest little boy he’d ever seen. Light brown hair the color of mocha hung in curls and covered his downcast eyes. As Brody neared the boy, he stopped and knelt before him. The curve of his lips, the cleft in his nose, and the depth of his chocolate brown eyes all looked eerily familiar. It only took a moment for Brody to recognize the familiarity, because the distinguished