Page 55

“He’s here,” I whispered. “Garrett. He’s at my door.”

Tyson cursed creatively. “Don’t open it. Don’t engage. I’m coming.”

“You’re working… Maybe the police…”

“I’m coming. Ten minutes tops. Stay away from the door.”

The line went dead. Outside, Garrett’s pounding intensified.

“I’ve been driving back and forth, only for you! The least you can do is face me!”

The dedication would be romantic if it wasn’t coming from him. I swallowed hard, willing my fists to unclench, my breathing to go back to normal.

“We need to talk about what you did to me!”

What I did to him. Rich. I kept quiet, closing my eyes, focusing on slowing down my racing heartbeat.

“My mother won’t return my calls, Samantha. Do you understand what you’ve done?”

Good. Patricia Cain had enabled her golden boy’s bullshit his entire life. About time she faced some consequences too.

The pounding got louder, more desperate. The door was solid wood but Garrett sounded unhinged enough to try kicking it down. It wasn’t the sturdiest door, so he’d probably succeed very, very soon.

I made a decision I’d probably regret and yanked the door open.

Garrett stood on my porch looking like absolute hell. Wrinkled shirt, two-day stubble, eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep or crying or both. The golden boy reduced to a desperate mess on my doorstep. It felt great, honestly.

“Hello, wife.”

The possessive tone made my skin crawl. I had to swallow down the nausea. “Not for much longer if you’d sign the damn papers.”

“Why should I?” He pushed past me into the house without invitation. “This whole situation has gotten out of hand.”

“The situation? Is that what we’re calling it now?”

He flinched. “It wasn’t… You don’t understand.”

“I understand perfectly. You couldn’t keep it in your pants and thought I was too stupid to notice.”

“You were never supposed to find out!”

“Oh well that makes it so much better. My bad for ruining your perfect plan.”

He ran his hands through his hair, pacing my living room like a caged animal. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Richardson pulled out of the Singapore deal. Kellerman won’t return my father’s calls. Twenty years of business relationship destroyed because you had to be vindictive.”

“Vindictive? I played a recording of your own words. If that ruined your life, maybe you should’ve chosen better words.”

His pacing stopped. “It was taken out of context!”

For a second, I saw real emotion crack through his facade. Pain, regret. Maybe even shame. Then it vanished, replaced by the calculating look I’d seen him use around other men.

“We can fix this,” he said, moving closer. “Spin it. Say the recording was edited. That Sophie was going through a rough patch and we were just… supporting each other. People will believe what we tell them to believe.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. It made absolutely no sense.

“Are you clinically insane?”

“Think about it rationally. We’ve been together for years. That’s not nothing, Sam. We have a house, a life, friends…”