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I want to say something about how it’s between him and me, how I don’t want his tequila brand to suffer because of me…but truthfully, I do. I want it to hurt. I want him to be out thousands of dollars and for this scandal to break. I want to go public with what he did. I want all his sponsors to drop him, and I want him to be publicly humiliated the same way I was.

I want him to feel even a fraction as awful as I do right now.

It’s a thin line between love and hate, and I may not be skilled on the ice, but I skated right over that line at his betrayal.

“I love you, Evy,” I say.

“I love you, too, Ivy,” she says back. “And please tell me you’ll stay at Ever-Brand.”

“Is that why you dropped him as a client?” I ask.

“No. I dropped him as a client because we don’t work with people who have proven to be deceptive. It’s too big a risk and could lead to scandals, and I question whether this tequila thing was real from the start or if it was just a way for him to win the bet.” She slaps her hand over her mouth at the last part of her diatribe. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. He admitted it was a way for him to see me, but he made me believe it was because he was interested in me, not in winning a bet.”

“So what are you going to do?” she asks.

I sigh and wrap both hands around my coffee cup. “I haven’t gotten that far, but I don’t think I can stay here.” I press my lips together. “I tossed and turned all night as I thought about my options, and I need to get out of Vegas. Dad’s sentencing is Tuesday. I think I’ll go to Chicago for a few days and figure things out from there. Maybe take Madden up on his offer.”

San Diego has two of my siblings there, my oldest brother and the brother closest to me in age. I’m pretty sure Liam has a place for me to live for the time being even though I backed out on potentially being a nanny for him, and I’m sure Madden would still give me a job at VanBrad.

I guess I’m lucky that there’s a backup plan available to me.

And I’m starting to feel like the smart move would be taking advantage of that.

Throwing myself into a new job would probably be better than hanging out at Everleigh’s house in Chicago, crying my eyes out.

“Madden would love that,” she says, not emphasizing the fact that she won’t love that I’m leaving her.

“I appreciate you saying that, and I’m sorry about this.”

She shakes her head as she reaches over to pull me into a side hug. “It isn’t your fault, babe. It’s his.”

After she forces me to choke down some breakfast, we head over to Cash’s house to pack up the rest of my belongings. The house is quiet, already back in tip-top shape, and I presume Carla was here to work her magic after last night’s party. The bottles I smashed have been cleaned, and the red Solo cups and trays of shitty food are all gone.

I don’t have a ton of stuff I need to move. I’ve only been in Vegas for a few months now, and both of my living situations were temporary. Most of my belongings are back in Chicago, actually, packed away in the basement of the Bradley Mansion, now owned by my brother Ford and his wife. They’ve been renovating it into a wedding venue, the first of which was Everleigh’s back in June.

June. Before I met Cash. Before I had my heart broken. Back when I was still a virgin.

He was so sweet, so caring and loving and tender with me. I have to believe there were real feelings there. But I guess it was inevitable for me to regret the man I lost it to, especially since he actually told me once that he didn’t want me to regret it.

Maybe if he’d been honest with me from the start, I wouldn’t be in this situation now. If he hadn’t kept this secret from me, maybe we could’ve found some way to move forward together. But it’s the betrayal that gets me.

What else was he deceiving me about? Does he have a different woman in every city? Would he eventually have cheated on me? Was it inevitable for us to meet our end, and he was just biding his time to the end of our contract?

I have no idea. And fine if I can’t legally divorce him until the one-year mark. That doesn’t mean I have to live with him and continue to act like his wife.

After the public breakup, I can’t imagine this won’t hit the news cycle at some point. It’s why I feel so pressed to get the hell out of town.

I sit on the bed we shared for a beat as Everleigh checks the bathroom drawers, and I look up flights to Chicago. I can leave as soon as an hour from now. First I need to sort through my things and decide what I’m traveling with, and maybe make arrangements for getting the rest of my stuff to San Diego. And I should probably talk to Madden and Liam at some point.

I can do that from Chicago.

I feel Everleigh’s presence behind me, and I glance up at her.

“Are you leaving today?” she asks.

I press my lips together, and I nod. “I think I have to.”