My security team lifts her to her feet and stands her in front of me.
Mandy glares at me, chest heaving, her hands out like she's ready to strike. I lift my hand.
"No," I say, calm and cutting. "You're not worth dirtying my hands over."
She jerks forward, pouncing, desperate, trying to hit or scratch me. I step back, and her claws meet nothing but air. Her forward momentum carries her straight to the concrete floor, and she hits it hard—face first. A sickening wet crack echoes as blood gushes from her nose. She screams, crying, holding her face.
I have no sympathy for this unhinged woman.
"You won't touch me," I laugh breezily. "You never could."
Security helps her to her feet once again, one of them offering her a handkerchief.
"He chose me, time and again," she shrieks, blood splattering.
Jaxson steps forward, voice harsh and cutting. "I would never choose you over Melly."
"You did choose me, Jaxson," she looks at him, pleading. "Who warms your bed every night? It's not her, it's me!" She reaches a bloody hand out to him. He cringes, both at her words and her touch.
"I don't want you, Mandy. I never did," Jaxson says, low and remorseful. "It was just sex. You were just there."
Her mouth drops open, her face pales with shock as her eyes fill with tears. I tilt my chin up, forcing her to meet my glare.
"If he weren't so disgusting to me right now, I'd show you how he is still mine. Always was. But I don't want anything that was ever yours in any way. Once he touched you, there was no coming back from it. He lost me. Keep him—he's your problem now."
I hear a sharp gasp from Jaxson and look his way. His face pale, his shoulders slumped, he reaches for me. But my guard blocks him. They know the drill.
"Melly, please tell me you don't mean that," he whispers so softly I can barely hear him.
"I do mean that," I tell him fiercely. "I didn't realize it at the time, but the minute you gave me that ultimatum, and then shared what was mine with someone else, it was over between us."
I turn to Mandy, who is still blubbering and bleeding.
"You didn't take anything from me," I tell her, quietly, softly. "He gave it to you, and that lets me know that we were already broken, somehow. In ways I'll never know or even care to know now."
I can hear Jaxson softly sobbing now.
"When did your affair with Mandy start, Jaxson?"
"Only after our agreement. I swear. I never cheated."
"He's lying," Mandy interjects. "It was just after the last season ended, and it carried on until I exposed him on the PuckCam. He thought he could dump me afternearly a year and go back to you and play house. But he'll never be rid of me. Never."
There's nothing rational left in Mandy's expression. Just frantic eyes and unraveling control. I glance at Jaxson, who appears hollowed out, as the cost of his choices is playing out in real time.
Not a good look for two people left with only each other. There's no going back for me, and Mandy looks less like a prize and more like a problem, her fixation on Jaxson tipping into something darker—obsessive, edging toward stalker territory.
"Wow. I'd say you know how to pick them, except you picked me." A laugh slips out, thin and shaky, and I have to bend forward, hands on my knees, just to breathe. This whole thing is finally catching up to me.
I wave my hand dismissively.
"You two deserve each other," I spit. "I wish you a long and miserable life together."
"No," Jaxson begs. "Listen to me, Melly, please. We can put this all behind us. It was the worst mistake of my life, and I regret ever doing this to us."
"Jaxson, you may regret it now that you've discovered that you can't keep the prize and chase the thrill, too. No having it both ways."
"I know. I know. You were right. I was wrong. Stupid. You're the only good thing in my life, Melly. I realize that now. I was such an idiot to risk what we had for nothing. My life is empty without you."
