This conversation was giving me a headache.
“What do you want me to do? We’re married.”
“Break up with him. Ask for an annulment. Let me help Lior save his company. I’m really sorry you’ve been dragged into all of this, but Lior and I have decades of shared history. I can forgive him for his transgressions. You don’t have to, Noah. You have your whole life ahead of you.”
A lump formed in my throat. Pierce was asking me to give up the only person I’d truly deeply loved in my whole life.
“I can’t.”
I exited the car and ran into the park, not stopping until I got home.
My phone was turned off. No doubt it had lost battery from all the notifications and calls. I put it on the charger and took a shower.
When I got out and turned the phone on, I braced myself.
Jax
WTF, dude. We’re in the papers. How did they find out? Call me.
Tanner
Jax can’t do his shift at the hospital because the press is camped out there. WTF is going on?
He’s at my place, BTW. Call us.
There was also a message from Lior, but it was from early this morning.
Lior
Hey. Hope you don’t get too sore from your game. I have plans for you. Have fun with the kids. See you tonight.
I dropped down on my couch. What was I going to do?
Pierce’s words had gotten to me. No matter how much I tried to shake them off, I couldn’t forget some of the things he’d said.
It was hard to separate the truth from Pierce’s accounts of what may have happened between him and Lior. If I was going to bet on anyone, it certainly wouldn’t be Pierce.
After all, I’d looked at incriminating photos of me with Jax that had a completely innocent explanation, so I had to take Pierce’s account with a huge pinch of salt.
What worried me the most was what I couldn’t deny.
I was a liability. I wasn’t good enough for him. If Lior lost his company because of me, I’d never forgive myself.
My stomach churned while my limbs felt heavy and numb.
I couldn’t see a way out.
Lior
Ichecked my phone for the hundredth time. Noah wouldn’t be home yet, and he always left his phone at home, so why couldn’t I leave it alone?
Whipped. That’s what I was. Totally, irrevocably, insanely whipped by my husband.
A distraction was what I needed.
Leaving my office, I turned left to the door with direct access to the museum gardens.
It was a warm summer day. The museum was packed with visitors. Many of them were outside.
