I'm shaking, not from the cold, but from the truth crystallizing in my chest into ice.
I swallow hard and face Richard, my jaw tensed. "I see it now. It was never love, was it? You chipped away at everything—my clothes, my voice, my choices—until I didn't even know who I was anymore. I mistook you choosing me for love and should have never married you."
Richard looks at me like I've transformed in front of him from trophy to trash.
"Screw you," he spits.
I wipe the last tear and hold my chin high. "No, you won't. You didn't for a long time anyway."
Ben snorts at him, pride all over his face that I'm his girl.
Richard seems hollow at this point as his eyes blink hard, like he can't believe I said that.
Then his mouth twists, he turns to Ben and his eyes pinch. "You know what? Keep her. But remember, what you're holding? They're my scraps."
Ben moves before the words even settle. His fist cuts through the air—raw, brutal—his knuckles white, the swing in his shoulder lethal.
Not the hand that's been worshipping me—this is aweapon.
My breath seizes. The world slows down.
If it lands, Richard won't just go down—he'll shatter.
If it lands, Ben will destroy his life, too.
And Richard isn't moving—he stands there, knowing it, daring Ben to draw his blood, so there is no way back for him.
"Ben! NO!" My scream rips out of me as I try to jump in between them. "Don't!"
But Ben's eyes are focused only on Richard, his whole body angled to end him.
Then another loud voice echoes from behind—Carmela's.
"BEN!"
At the last possible second, Ben wrenches back, muscles straining, his rage trembling against my palms as I try to push him back.
"Don't! Please, don't," I say frantically. "You'll ruin your life if you hit him. He isn't worth it."
Ben's eyes burn into Richard, his jaw ready to snap him in half. "Asshole doesn't get to talk about you like that."
"He's broken. He wants us hurting with him."
"Don't care. I'll paint the pavement with his brain so he doesn't even think that again," Ben grits out.
"No. Ben. Look at me. Look at me—" I hold his chin and angle it down to anchor him to me. "He wants to see us ruined. We can't give it to him. Stay with me. Me only. Okay?"
Ben's chest heaves, his nostrils still flaring, but he nods.
Behind me, Richard gives a condescending snort. "You really are a better match with him."
I turn to Richard, who slides into the waiting cab.
"You think you've won, but you haven't met my kind of patience," he says before the door thuds closed, and then red taillights smear through the rain, disappearing in the night.
I stand there, shaking, Ben's heartbeat wild thunder beneath my fingers.
Then Carmela's voice cuts behind him again, shrill with panic. "Ben! What the hell is going on?!"
