Page 24 of Beautiful Betrayal

“He says she—”

“Don’t. Don’t you too. I saw it. Do you not understand that I saw it?” My phone rings in my hand and I toss it. “Just help me plan the rest of my life without him.”

“Right now. We’re going to order pizza, you need food because that bottle is half empty and you don’t drink. As in, you get drunk at half a glass.”

Her phone rings in her hand and she glances down at it. She answers the line. “Yes. She’s—”

“Are you talking to him?” I demand.

She stands up and holds up her hand. “Mia.”

“You are. I can’t believe you took his call. Hang up.”

“Hold on,” she says into her phone and punches a button. “She’s on speaker.”

“Mia, I didn’t do this,” Grayson says. “I swear on my mother, my father, and to God.”

“Stop talking, Grayson, because you see, I’m stupid. I listen to you. I want to believe you. Or I did. I trusted you. I would have died for you. No more.Nomore!”

“Baby, I’ll do anything—”

“To get your baby-making machine back? So you can look perfect and have your heir? No. I’m not her. I’m taking off the ring and Courtney will bring it to you. Maybe you can put it on her. She can be—”

“Stop, Mia,” Courtney says. “Stop.”

“He fired me off my case and put her on it, Courtney!” I shout. “Did he tell you that?”

She pales. “What?”

“Yes. Fired me and then fucked her. Or fucked me and fucked her. I don’t know. Hang up.”

“Mia!” Grayson calls out. “Listen to me. I—”

My stomach rolls and I rush to the bathroom and end up on my knees at the toilet. I heave and I am so sick I want to die. When I finally fall back on the tile, Courtney kneels beside me. “Honey, I hung up. I didn’t know about the case. That’s—”

“Damning?”

“Yeah. It kind of is.”

I curl up in a ball and let the ring in my hand settle on the tile. “Take it to him and try to get my things. I need to be alone.”

“I’ll deal with all of that tomorrow. I’m staying with you tonight, but let’s go to my place.”

“He’ll find me there.”

“Well, we have a friend who’s a realtor. I’ll see if she can get you into a place tomorrow, but you need to be somewhere where you can deal with paperwork. Let’s go back to the city.”

I sit up and pull my knees to my chest. “Right. Because I need a home and a new job.”

Because I don’t live or work with Grayson anymore.

Chapter seventeen

Mia

The present

I’m still standing on the patio of Grayson’s Hamptons home, in nothing but a silk robe I bought when he was mine and I was his. I’m staring at him and he’s staring at me, and there are steps and space between us that reach beyond the physical. The night we broke up is right here with us, a wedge that won’t collapse. Images of Becky pressed against him pound at my mind, driven home by that damn text message I’d read the night of his father’s funeral. It zaps that blame I’d put on myself. It says that I’m not the one who betrayed us. It sayshedid. It’s the message that could catch him in a lie. I don’t want him to lie, but I need to know if he will. Emotions rush at me hard and fast. I need the truth once and for all, but I can’t do this in this robe. I can’t be that vulnerable.

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