She turned her gaze back on me slowly, eyebrows pulling inward.
“What?”
“Healing or not, I’m not keeping you here another minute,” I said, my voice rough but steady. “You’ve more than earned the$750,000 for your troubles. Henry will send the wire transfer today. You can just… have it. No strings. No repayment clause. No marriage requirement.”
Her breath caught.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I won’t hurt you anymore.” The truth scraped its way out of me like shards of broken glass. “I won’t lie to you. I won’t manipulate you. I won’t keep you trapped in something you never really agreed to. You didn’t know what you were signing up for, and that wasn’t fair. I knew you wouldn’t read the contract carefully, and I intended to use that against you, but… I can’t. I won’t do it anymore.”
Her jaw trembled. She hugged her arms tight around herself and stared up at the ceiling like she was fighting the urge to cry again.
I pushed on anyway, because if I stopped now I’d never get it all out.
“No matter how it seems from the outside looking in, the Game wasn’t just some rich man’s whim, Chrissy. I can promise you that much. It was a cage I built because I was too fucking scared to be honest with you. Because my father’s trust — written before my accident, before everything went to hell — had a clause, and that clause is what made me decide to pursue the Game and set it in motion. If I didn’t marry by midnight on Christmas Eve the year I turned thirty, every asset, every acre, every dollar, every piece of the Stonewood legacy would transfer to Vivian, my stepmother. I couldn’t stomach the thought of losing everything to the woman who poisoned my father while I was in a coma, the woman who tried to pull the plug on me while I was too vulnerable to protect myself. I couldn’t allow the woman whofled the country the second the police and the board started asking questions, to win.”
Chrissy’s eyes widened, but she nodded for me to go on, unwilling to interrupt my explanation.
“I woke up to nothing but scars and suspicion,” I said. “And a ticking clock. Vivian’s still out there, waiting for me to fail. If she wins, she’ll gut everything my family built, everything that’s left of them. Ashgrove House. The lodge. The investments. All of it gone. And I’d be left with exactly what I deserve… nothing.”
I forced myself to meet her gaze.
“I told myself the Game was about finding someone who could handle my world. Someone loyal. Someone strong. Someone who wouldn’t flinch at the monster. But really… I was looking for a way to have you, specifically. I’ve wanted you from the second you patched my hand in that hardware store and didn’t look at my scars like they made me untouchable. I watched you for years. I rigged everything so you’d come here. I became Jacob so I could touch you without terrifying you. So I could feel, just once, what it was like to be wanted for more than money or power or pity. I even… I even bought off those boyfriends of yours. I paid them to disappear because they weren’t good enough for you. But no one is good enough for you, angel, not even me. Especially not me, now. Not after everything I’ve done.”
My voice cracked.
“I lied to you every single day. I tested you. I punished you. I marked you. And every time you passed — every time you chose kindness, loyalty, and integrity — I fell harder for you until I couldn’t breathe without knowing you were within my reach.”
Tears tracked silently down her cheeks now.
“I don’t care what it costs me with Vivian,” I said. “I don’t care if I lose everything. I don’t care if she guts the estate and takes every ounce of power left in my name. I won’t cage you another fucking second to save it. It’s not worth it to me anymore.”
The words nearly destroyed me as I said them.
“I’m releasing you from the Game.”
She stared at me like I’d dropped a nuclear bomb on her.
“You’re… you’re just letting me go? Just like that?”
“Yes,” I murmured. “I’m giving you back your freedom. The money is yours. Granny Irene’s care is covered. Your debts will all be paid. I’ll take care of all of it, regardless of what the contract said. There will be no marriage, no five-year clause, and no consequences.”
Her lips parted and she choked back a sob.
“Are you serious?”
I forced myself to look at her, to meet the fire and hurt and devastation in her eyes.
“You didn’t deserve any of this, Chrissy. Not the lies. Not the tests. Not the way I hid behind Jacob to get close to you. You deserved honesty from the beginning, and I was too much of a coward to give it to you.”
She held up a hand and cut me off, her voice trembling, but her piercing gaze was as steady as the north star.
“Then why didn’t you give me the honesty I deserved, Ben? You had every possible opportunity to come clean, but you didn’t.”
My breath stalled.
“I know, and I’m so fucking sorry?—”
