Hi guys, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for all your kind reviews, they were the best present! Just a quick warning, this is the second to last chapter for this story. But the good news is, I'm having a new story in the works in the post AYITL-world (because, seriously, this mess needs fixing!). I hope to start posting it in January. But first, let's bring this story to an end. Have fun!

14. The hard part

Despite being sure of his decision, the hard part came on Monday night when Logan returned home from work. Rebecca had come home late from her trip to the spa the night before, Logan had already been asleep. And as usual, he had gotten up way before her to go to work. He took a deep breath before entering their penthouse.

"I'm home." he announced.

"Oh, Logan, thank you so much for the weekend! It was amazing. Honestly, we have to go to this place together next time! You're the best." Rebecca approached him, clearly wanting to kiss him, but Logan took her hands in his before she could hug him and looked at her with a serious expression on his face.

"Rebecca, we need to talk." And the Oscar for the most clichéd sentence goes to…, he thought annoyed.

She looked hurt. "Did something happen at work?" she asked concerned.

"No, nothing about work. Let's go inside." In silence, they went to the dining room and sat down at the table.

"Listen I'm really sorry to do this to you, but it wouldn't be fair to put it off any longer. Rebecca, we can't get married. I'm sorry."

Her face showed more confusion than hurt. "Is this a joke? If it is, that's not funny!"

Logan shook his head. "I wouldn't joke about something like that."

"Is it the wedding? I know your mom and I got a little carried away with the planning, it got way bigger than we had intended, but I thought you were fine with it? We can still change it, I guess. Though your mom won't like it." Rebecca rambled, trying to avoid the inevitable breakdown.

"It's not the wedding, Rebecca. We can't get married because…"

"Is it something I did? I know you don't like that I quit my job and won't work when we're married, but there's plenty of stuff to do, and I'll be taking care of our kids, and I…" It pained him to see her like this. After all, he did love her. It just wasn't enough.

"Becca, please, let me talk." He begged and took her hand to keep her from picking at her cuticles. "You didn't do anything, believe me." He made sure to have her full attention before he slowly said: "There's another woman."

Her face fell. "But… but I love you!" she whispered. "Do you need more time before settling down? I'm okay of you need time to break it off with her. I can bend the rules a little for you."

Logan hated to hear her talk like this. She reminded him so much of his mother in this moment, who was a master at turning a blind eye to his father's affairs. But he never would have thought Rebecca would be willing to act like that. It pained him to see how little self-esteem she showed.

"I love her." He confessed. "And I would never ask my wife to accept another woman next to her. And you shouldn't be ready to do so."

"But I love you, Logan." She repeated. "I want to marry you. Don't you care about that at all?"

Logan's heart broke for her, and also for the two years spent together. They'd had a good time. It just wasn't enough. "I care about you, Rebecca. And I did love you. But you deserve so much better. You deserve a guy who loves you with all his heart, who can't wait to get married to you. But I'm not that guy."

Rebecca got up and turned away from him. He could her sobs. "Do you feel that way about her?"

He didn't want to hurt her anymore, but the least he owed her was honesty. "I do."

Slowly, her sobs got more muffled, he saw her straightening her shoulders before turning around. "Then I guess it's over." she stated. With that, she took off the engagement ring and put it on the table in front of him.

"I'll spend the night at my sister's. I'll get my stuff tomorrow." Logan was impressed at how quickly Rebecca pulled herself together, and a little hurt in spite of himself.

"Okay. I'm really sorry." Rebecca merely nodded before she left. Logan let out a deep breath, unsure if this had gone better or worse than expected.

As if on cue, his phone rang. "Hey Honor." He greeted his older sister.

"Hey, brother, how's it going? Did Becca tell you about the spa?"

He picked up the engagement ring and absentmindedly played with it. "Yes, a little. I'm glad you guys liked it."

There was a pause before Honor sighed. "So, you broke off the engagement?"

"What?" Suddenly Logan was fully aware of his surroundings again. How did Honor know?

"Oh, please, Logan. I didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize there was something going on. You've always been generous, but the typical Logan Huntzberger move to spoil a girl would have been to take her on a romantic getaway. Unless he wanted the girl out of the way, that's when the old sister/ girl's best friend comes in handy. I didn't even need to hear Rebecca tell me you guys hadn't had sex in eight weeks to know something was wrong."

"She told you what?" Logan exclaimed. "It certainly wasn't eight weeks!"

"Yeah, I had a hard time believing it myself. Who knew my little brother could even go two full months without having sex?"

"Honor!" Logan had to laugh.

"Come on, Logan, my room was right next to yours. And I've heard stories from your college days." His sister loved teasing him a little too much sometimes.

"Okay, enough about my sex-life." He tried to break it off. "Though, maybe it was eight weeks." He admitted ruefully.

"Pretty sure it was, girls usually remember this stuff quite well. But, Logan, please tell me you didn't… you didn't have an affair, did you?"

Logan sighed. "No affair." He decided to be fully open with Honor. "But the eight weeks ended this weekend."

He heard Honor sigh. He knew this wasn't pleasant for her; Rebecca was her friend after all. "So, you took Rory on a romantic getaway?" she hit the mark.

"I did." He confirmed.

"I take it Rory wasn't opposed to the idea of getting back together?" He could hear her smile.

Logan couldn't keep himself from smiling like an idiot. "Quite the opposite."

"I'm happy for you, little brother. But I have to ask, how did Rebecca take it?"

Logan mused about it. "Honestly, she was rather composed. I guess I should be happy, but my pride is a little hurt to be honest."

Honor chuckled. "Eight weeks, Logan. She knew something wasn't quite right. Plus, the frequent overtime and your general reclusiveness. You guys aren't aware, but you usually give quite a few hints. She did have a fair warning." Honor told him honestly. "And hurt pride or not, you should be happy. You have two conversations ahead of you with people who will be the opposite of composed."

Logan groaned. He was less than keen to tell his parents about the engagement being off.

"Listen, little brother, because I'm grateful for the spa weekend – although I was merely a means to an end for your wicked plans with Rory – I will help you with that. I'm going over there tomorrow night. You can come with me and I'll help you break the news. Deal?"

Logan was more than happy to have such a supportive sister.

They did as she offered, and it was even more uncomfortable than Logan had imagined. His mother screamed hysterically, his father threatened to disown him, neither understood why he wasn't ready to put any doubts aside and take the chance at marriage with the perfect society wife. He realized why he had never loved Rebecca as fully as he should have: she was the perfectly acceptable choice in his parent's world. As nice a girl as she was, the thought sent a shiver down his spine.

Against his sister's advice, he told them about Rory as well. The disappointment was complete. But Logan was glad to have everything out in the open. As usual, all his father cared about was business and appearances. How would a broken off engagement for a fling with a journalist from a competing paper look like?

In his boldest move since his college days, Logan told his father he'd quit. When he left his parent's house that night, he felt more liberated than ever before.

The rest of his life started now!