Because…
My heart crumples in my chest when I see the glistening of the biggest fucking diamond I’ve ever seen in my life placed on Shelby’s delicate ring finger.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
TYLER
You wanted this,Sunny.
She made it clear what she wants, and that’s to let her go. That’s not a viable option, so this is the alternative. If it pisses her off, so be it. In fact, I hope it does. She doesn’t want me doing this, and I don’t want her doing what she’s doing.Call it even, baby.
Yet, one glimpse at her is almost enough to make me backtrack every single thing I’ve done since the moment she shattered my already broken heart.
The looks on everyone's faces tells me this was not the way to go about this. I know they’d try to talk me out of it. I’m not going to sit through a fucking lecture about what I should and shouldn’t do. It’smylife.
The love of my life is walking out of my life, taking a part of me with her. I know what a great love is now, and I know I’ll never get that again because if it isn’t her, then it isn’t anyone else.
I had the contract ready for Shelby’s father, but then Sunny ended things, and it wasn’t worth the fight anymore because Sunny is the only thing worth fighting for.
So fuck it, right?
Unwillingly, I feel that thread woven deeply in my bones pull my eyes where she stands. The look on her face is enough punishment as it is. Dark brows crease, pink lips part, and I watch the very betrayal she feels ripple across her face and body as the defeat of it all decompresses her, weighing on her slumped shoulders and caving her chest in.
I avert my eyes everywhere but her, trying to swallow back the thickness forming in my throat. Maybe it’s for the best, because no person should have a power like this over me.
While she may be my greatest strength, she has proved to be my greatest weakness, too. That’s something I can’t afford.
Still, my eyes move back to where she stands, looking so alone in the kitchen. Gone are the flames of her emotions, and back is the ash of who she is.
The sad girl who refuses to give me anything.
This is what you wanted, Sunny.
SUNNY
He already proposed to her, and he toldno one. The looks on everyone's faces is proof of that.
When his eyes meet mine, it’s like the world goes into slow motion. I can’t read a single thing behind those emeralds. Maybe I don’t want to because I’m scared of what I’ll see. The painI’vecaused.
“Hi everyone!” Shelby smiles big, baring her white, straight teeth. She’s so beautiful on the outside…but the inside.
“Shelby.Wow. What a surprise,” Anthony says.
“I hope we have enough food,” Sam groans in her wine glass.
“Therewill beenough food,” Tyler snaps.
I hate his defense for her. This is not what was supposed to happen.
“It’s so good to see you all!” Shelby clutches Tyler’s bicep harder. A muscle feathers in his jaw.
“So what brings you here tonight, Shelby?” Cole braces his forearms on the counter next to me. He knows the answer to that question. We all do. That massive ring is indication enough.
“Well…” She looks at Tyler who stares vacantly to nothing in particular.
She nudges him, and I watch the slow roll of his throat as he prepares to say the words he knows all of us are waiting for.
How do we undo this?I was willing to let him go toanyoneother than her.
