Page 127 of Golden Ruin

“I wanted to tell you myself, but… Pandora beat me to it.”

Like always.

My hands shake twice as hard when I step closer. “I know nothing I say will mean much now, but I’m–”

“Don’t,” he cuts in, and that single word leaving his mouth halts me. “Don’t apologize for making a choice, Lexi. All I asked was that you let me know when you figured it out, and… you tried to do that.”

I did try. Even knowing it would break his heart.

“Are you happy?”

His question has me lifting my gaze to meet his. There’s only sadness behind his eyes. No malice or anger.

“It’s still very new, and I’m scared shitless, but… yeah. I am.”

I could say more, but that’s enough.

Matt nods, taking a slow breath as he looks toward the floor. “Good,” he says quietly. “That’s all I needed to hear.” A smile barely touches his eyes when he finally looks up at me. “And don’t beat yourself up about the pictures. They didn’t blindside me like you’re thinking. They were just confirmation.”

That’s not a total shock after our last talk.

“Thank you for not making this harder than it had to be.”

He smiles a little. “We’re friends, Lexi. Nothing will ever change that.”

He looks confused when I step closer, bringing him into a hug. Matt’s a good guy–one of the best I know. He’s just not meant to be mine.

I leave his office feeling far less guilty than I did when I walked in, but my head’s nowhere near clear. Those headlines are still eating away at me, and when my phone starts lighting up once I’m in the truck, frustration settles back in pretty quickly.

I park at the curb outside Jax’s school and kill the engine, wanting to get back to Sterling’s to hide out and process everything, but then I hear it. The whispers…

“That’s her.”

“Wasn’t he recently engaged?”

“Rich people think they can do whatever the hell they want.”

“Hope she knows that once a cheater, always a cheater.”

These and several other triggering words buzz in my ears as I glare toward the sidewalk where a group of the moms have gathered. They pretend they aren’t talking about me, but they definitely were, proving that I was right. People think they know the story, twisting it into something it never was. Like I’m the reason Sterling’s engagement ended.

Come on, Jax.

Please.

The kid seems to have heard my silent prayer, because the next second, his teacher is bringing him to the pick-up lane with five other students. I put on a fake smile and wave when she spots me, then I’m counting his steps as he makes his way over.

The group of gossiping moms shoot me dirty looks while they whisper, thinking they know me, know what my life’s like, but they don’t know shit.

“Hi, Mommy!”

“Hey, baby. Put your seatbelt on, okay?”

I start the truck, wait to hear the click once he’s buckled in, then I merge into traffic a bit too quickly, glancing into the rearview mirror at Jax. He launches right into a story about someone trading him a cookie for his apple slices. The innocence in his eyes soothes my heart a bit, but I still hear a montage of the women’s words as I drive–cheater, side chick, homewrecker.

None of those things have anything to do with what Sterling and I are building. They’re simply not true. Jax laughs from the backseat, completely oblivious to the words strangers have written about our family. And as my thoughts remain divided between my son and the snide remarks I just overheard, I’m forced to reckon with something I hadn’t even considered.

While Sterling and I have decided we’re better together than we were apart, the rest of the world might disagree. I naively believed the fight was over. But now, after today, maybe the truth is… the fight is just getting started.