“You think I give a shit if you lose this job?” he snaps. “You need to get your ass back to Moraine. You have a job. A life. Amarriageto get back to. Get your shit. We’re leaving.”
Excuse me?
Setting down my purse on the chair, I step around the desk, slowly. “You need to leave. You can’t come in here and bark orders at me like—like I belong to you.”
“Oh, cut the act. You’re not some cold-hearted badass who can just pack up and erasesixteen years. You didn’t even have the decency to say it to my face. You just took your things and disappeared.”
Erase it? No. Walk away from it? Yes. “Because I knew if I said it to your face, you wouldn’t hear me. You never do. I’ve tried to talk to you. So I made my decision. I wrote it down. And I left.”
“I’m your husband!”
“And I’m not your property!”
His face twists. “This is what you want now? To besomebody’s goddamn secretary? A used up, divorced, thirty-year-old failure of a wife? What are you supposed to do, Tori? Reinvent yourself? Act like we never happened? You think you’re going to find yourself in some city?”
“Find myself?” I laugh—cold, bitter, a little unhinged. “Iknowwho I am. I don’t need to find myself. The only thing I needed was to stopshrinkingso you could feel better about yourself for two fucking seconds.”
I take a step closer. Stronger. Bolder. Angrier than I’ve been in his presence in years. My voice shakes, but it’s not from fear. It’s from release. From fury. From finally saying what should’ve been said years ago.
I’m not taking his shit any longer. And Leo’s already heard every word spewed from this man’s mouth, so at this point, I don’t care what he hears. Let him heareverything.
“But you know what, Chase?” I hiss. “It didn’t matter how small I was—youstillhated yourself. And everyone around you. And I am the one who suffered for it. I’m the one who carried it. I’m the one whonearly lost my fucking soul for it.”
My voice breaks, but I don’t stop.
“So I left. Because I’m done doing everything I can to lift you up just so you can find new ways todrown mein your own goddamn misery!”
He stares at me, stunned. And for a split second, there’s nothing—no fire, no sarcasm, no venom. Just silence.
Then he lunges forward and grabs my arm.
Hard.
But before he can say another word, the silence shatters.
“Let. Her. Go.”
Leo’s voice cracks like thunder.
He’s already moving before Chase fully turns his head. Calm, precise, like he’s done this before and doesn’t need to rehearse the steps.
Chase drops my arm, but Leo’s already between us.
“No,” Leo says, low and firm, “we’re not doing that.”
Chase bristles. “She’s my?—”
“She’s not youranything. And you’re not welcome here.”
Chase lifts a hand in mock surrender, but the tension in his jaw says he’s one second away from doing something stupid.
Leo takes a small step forward. Not threatening. Just a shift in presence. His hands stay down. His voice stays even.
“Walk. Out. Now.”
Chase looks at me again. One last scowl. “Youwillregret this.”
“I already did,” I say. “For years.”
