“I miss you.”
The slight hitch in her breath was enough of a reaction for me to keep going.
“My marriage was hell, and the divorce was worse. I haven’t had a single happy day since we ended.” I dragged a hand over my beard, unable to look away from her. “And I never stopped thinking about you.”
I hadn’t planned to open up to her like this, but the truth slipped free before I could hold it back.
For a moment, Tessa’s eyes softened, and I hoped that I’d done the right thing. She even took a step toward me before she caught herself and shut it all down.
Her expression iced over so quickly that I wondered if I’d imagined her initial reaction. The wall she’d built to protect herself was back up, even stronger than before. “Your wants and needs are not my problem anymore. I’m not your girlfriend. Or even your ex-wife. That would be the woman you married while you were still with me. Absolutely nothing is tying us together.”
Everything she said was true, but the accusation in her tone confused me. Although I had agreed to the engagement to Vanessa while Tessa was my girlfriend, I wasn’t the one who’d decided to end our relationship so abruptly.
“Only because you walked away from me. Why didn’t you fight for us?”
Tessa’s reaction to my question wasn’t what I expected. She stared at me as though I’d just said the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. Shock flickered across her face first, followed by hurt before fury swallowed both emotions.
“What in the heck are you talking about?” she snapped, her voice shaking. “You didn’t give me the chance to walk away when you erased me from your life.”
My head jerked back. The floor might as well have shifted beneath me. All I could do was stare at her, stunned because I had no fucking clue what she meant.
7
TESSA
Istared at him, waiting for some hint that he understood the absurdity of what he’d just asked me. But Gage only looked stunned, as if my reply made zero sense.
He actually had the nerve to look blindsided after how he destroyed me three years ago.
Fury surged through my veins, burning even hotter than it had back then. “Are you actually kidding me right now?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Which was good because I was nowhere close to being done yet.
“You’re the one who burned us to the ground! You broke up with me over voicemail, for fuck’s sake.”
I wasn’t one to swear, but I had a feeling that wasn’t why he looked so surprised. That only made me even more angry.
Stabbing a finger toward him, I continued, “Then you announced your engagement only minutes later. Which was fan-fucking-tastic timing on your part because it ended up that I found out you were marrying Vanessa before I even got that message.”
His lips parted again, but I wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say for himself now that I was getting it all out.
“As if that wasn’t bad enough, the texts I tried to send you while I raced home after sobbing in my car were never shown as read. My calls went straight to voicemail. And when I finally stumbled into my apartment, the first thing I saw was a box of my stuff and the key I gave you, sitting on my kitchen counter. ”
I finally stopped, my chest heaving as I wondered why he looked like this was all stuff he hadn’t known.
“None of this makes any sense.” He scrubbed his palms down his face. “I got a text from you, then all of my replies were never marked as read. My calls went directly to your voicemail, too. And I never packed up your stuff. When I got home from the office later that evening, my key to your place was gone, your things were cleared out, and a box of my shit was sitting on the entryway table.”
For a moment, I thought he was lying. But when the confusion shifted to dawning dread, I realized he genuinely believed what he was saying. Even though it was the exact opposite of what I lived through.
“You’re right about one thing, your story doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s not a story, and I can prove it.” He yanked his phone from the inner pocket of his suit jacket. Then he scrolled through his messages and thrust the screen toward me. “Here. Look.”
He’d scrolled up through the string of blue bubbles too quickly for me to read any of them, but the one supposedly from me was enough to make my stomach drop.
Tessa
No explanation needed. I was planning to end things soon anyway. Will drop off your stuff when I grab mine. Don’t worry about the key, changing the lock.
