Only Consenting Adults Ch. 04

Aghast, Aidan watched her defences come up, the woman he remembered slipping back behind the mask. He knew he could protest that she was the one who cheated on him, forced his hand, but he bit his tongue, knowing that she wanted the argument, she wanted to feel the bitterness, and it wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Like I said, there was nothing else I could do," Aidan repeated, "I'm trapped."

"By what?" Rosa snorted.

Aidan could feel everything begin to fall apart. His mind reeling, it was Mara's voice that came to him, from out of nowhere, talking about her movie script, about the protagonist's struggle. It all made sense. He smiled at his wife, but there were sudden tears in his eyes now.

"I'm trapped by love," he said.

"Huh?"

"Rosa, I still love you. If you don't love me anymore, then say it. Set me free. I'll know that we can't be saved... you just need to choose."

Again, Rosa didn't respond to him, leaving the statement hanging between them. He could tell that she was thinking it through, though, that she'd heard his words.

When at last she broke the silence, her voice was small, wavering, laden with hurt.

"The last time I made a choice, it was the wrong one, and it made you leave my life," Rosa told him, "But I kept thinking about it after and y'know, maybe it's all for the best."

"Wait...."

Her eyes never left his, the words like blows against his chest. "You can start again, Aidan, find someone new, someone without the broken insides. You can be happy, you can have kids, you can do all those things you wanted. All those things that I can't."

"No...."

"Listen to me. Deny it, go on. Tell me that it isn't what you want more than anything."

"Rosa...."

"I'm broken, Aidan. If we'd stayed together, you'd have ended up broken too."

"Maybe not. Maybe we find a way."

"We tried, remember? We went until I had nothing left."

"Wait. A year ago, when you went out. You made the wrong decision you said."

Aidan sucked in a breath, trying to steady the quaver from his voice.

"We have one more left, Rosa, one more on ice. One more try."

She stared at him for a long while. Aidan smiled at her, his heart breaking.

"You just gotta tell me," he murmured.

Rosa opened her mouth to speak;

Aidan's breath caught in his throat. Suddenly, she blinked, and it was like she was done.

"I gotta get home, Aidan. Davey's gonna be expecting me. He gets concerned if I'm late."

"Wait, babe. Don't."

"It's no use, Aidan. It can't be fixed."

"Do you still love me?"

Rosa pursed her lips. Her eyes shifted to the door handle, her expression once again guarded. She didn't answer him. Reluctantly, Aidan opened his door and got out. Rosa leaned across, looking up at him.

"Aidan, don't ask me that," she said, "Davey was right. You don't help."

Aidan closed the car door and Rosa started the engine. She pulled out and rolled across the car park slowly to the exit.

All that time and the distance, all the effort to find his way back home to his wife, it had all come to nothing. Aidan stood where she'd left him, a lost figure watching the car's taillights as it merged into traffic and disappeared from view.

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[Next chapter: Quinn's new life with Ally is tested, leading to a surprising turn of events.

Additional backstory: Mara Fey's movie script is covered in PHB08. Aidan and Rosa's final fertility treatment is related in a dream sequence in OG10.

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