Page 105 of The Love You Win

Every cell in my body vibrates with fury. This asshole. He has the nerve to show up at her job and say shit like this? All he’s said is that he’s sorry he lost her free labor. The man’s not sorry that he hurt her. He’s not sorry that he let her down. He’s sorry she’s not there to put him first anymore.

I want to break his nose. I want to storm in there and tell him to get lost. But I don’t. I hold my breath and wait for my girl to rip him a new asshole. She did before. I can’t wait to hear how she knocks him down a few pegs this time.

So I wait. If she needs me, I’ll step in. But if I’ve learned anything about Isla, it’s that she’s capable of fighting her own battles. And I need to give her a chance to fight this one.

There’s a beat of silence. “That’s your apology? That you’re sorry you didn’t realize sooner how much I was doing for you?” The laugh she lets out is low and bitter. “I’ve got news for you, Alex. What you should be sorry about is not realizing sooner that you weren’t doing anything for me. Yeah, I took care of you. But did you ever take care of me?”

He lets out a sound of protest that Isla quickly cuts off. “The answer is no. You never took care of me. But I’ve found someone who does. He takes such good care of me, Alex. In ways you could never understand.”

Pride fills me at how confidently she says those words. I’ve been so worried the past few days that I royally screwed up, but here she is, letting me know I haven’t completely ruined things. I can’t have, if she feels like I take care of her.

Her prick of an ex grunts. “All I ever did was work my ass off so I could take care of you. But none of that was ever good enough for you. You’d still nag me about every little thing. I never spent enough time with you. I never took you out to enough places.”

Guilt twists in my belly at that. His words hit a little too close to home after this weekend. But I won’t make that mistake a second time.

“Then as soon as we break up, you’re dating some hockey player? What the hell, Isles. Did I even mean anything to you?”

“Are you serious?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper. “I was going to marry you.”

“Yeah.” Alex chuckles darkly. “Didn’t take you very long to move on, did it? You lost your meal ticket when I left, so you set your sights on the first rich idiot you could get, huh? You love to act all superior, don’t you? You pretend you don’t care about money or status, but as soon as I stopped bringing you around my powerful connections, you showed your true colors. Couldn’t stop bitching, then, could you?”

Isla is silent. I want to drop everything in my hands and rush in to her classroom. I want to pull her into my arms and tell her ex that if he ever so much as looks at her again, I’ll kill him. But I don’t. I’m rooted in place, ears straining to hear whatever he says next.

“I gotta hand it to you. I’m impressed. You really have that meathead wrapped around your little finger. Does he know how much school debt you have? Did you get him to agree to pay for it yet?”

My stomach twists. What the hell? Holding my breath, I wait for Isla to tell him off.

She’s silent.

“Don’t forget, I know how much you make at this job. You’ve got to be one car problem away from ruin. It’s smart to find a rich jock to take care of you. There’s no way the two of you have anything in common. But I guess guys like that are good for at least one thing besides paying the bills, right?”

My body vibrates with rage. How dare he say any of this to her? I can’t wait to listen to her eviscerate him.

“At least you’re not as stupid as you look,” Isla says instead. Her voice is flat. It feels like a slap across the face. “You’re right. I put all of those years into you thinking I’d end up married to a rich lawyer. Then you dumped me, and I was back at square one.”

No.

“All I had to do was act like I was falling apart, and I knew Jess and Nevaeh would start trying to set me up with someone they deemed good enough. I had no idea they’d win a date for me with a rich professional athlete. Talk about luck, right?”

My vision tunnels.

“I’ll admit it. At first, I didn’t think things would go anywhere with Maddox. He didn’t seem all that interested. But with a little luck and some meddling from Jess and Nev, I managed to get his attention. And you’re right. He’s rich. Way richer than you could ever hope to be. And unlike you, he makes me come. That’s all a girl needs, isn’t it? Money and a big dick? I should thank you for dumping me. If you hadn’t, I never would have landed such a lucrative catch.”

Static roars in my ears and my stomach lurches. The words Candace hurled my way when I broke with her clang like dissonant bells in my ears.

I’m going to be sick.

Turning, I stumble down the hallway the way I came. I shove the food and flowers in the first trash can I find.

Isla’s flat words play on a loop in my head.

I should thank you for dumping me. If you hadn’t, I never would have landed such a lucrative catch.

They blend with Candace’s parting shots. So similar. So callous.

Candace’s words broke my pride. She humiliated me when she sold that phony-ass interview to the tabloids. But Isla’s words?

Isla’s words break my heart.

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