Chapter 4

Laura practically ran home. She fought the tears threatening. How had they gone from a relaxing, romantic evening to this? As she let herself into their home, she regretted moving in. Before, she could have gone to her own home, turned off her phone and ignored everything.

A couple glasses of wine, a hot bath and a good night's sleep and she would have been better. Now, there was nowhere to run. He would be home soon and she wouldn't be able to avoid the glaring issue in their relationship.

She remembered when she was younger a friend telling her there was always one person in a relationship who loved more. At the time, she'd thought it such a foolish idea. Now, living that exact scenario, she simply felt a fool.

It was the dark, dirty secret of her relationship with Robbie. Despite all of their closeness, he had never told her he loved her. He called her love or pet but he'd never uttered those words. Even when she said them to him, he usually countered with "me too."

She hadn't told anyone, was too ashamed. Everyone she knew would questione why she moved in with him, why she put up with the behavior. How she had become the one who loves more.

She couldn't draw a deep breath, the room felt airless. Throwing open the doors to the patio she was met with that damned canoe. The words of the strange man returned, full force. Suddenly she needed to be anywhere but here.

The house, she'd once found to be her place a rest, was now a prison. Grabbing a jacket, she left. No particular destination in mind, just anywhere but here. She didn't stop to leave him a note, gave no indication as to where she was going or when she would be back.

All she could think about was getting away, away from that stupid canoe, away from the home which was a prison and away from him. It wouldn't matter, would it? It wasn't as if he loved her. He didn't even care enough to tell people about her. The man who sold him the canoe knew about Val but didn't know he was living with someone else.

That simple fact tore down all of her illusions. It stripped her bare of all of the lies she'd told herself. Both about him loving her and about her need to hear him say those words. That was perhaps the biggest lie of them all. She'd let this happen. She'd lied to herself, let herself believe she didn't need to hear it.

But she did need to hear. It wasn't enough to think it was true, she needed to hear him say it.