Page 81 of Loving You

“I know,” she said, answering their expressions. “I don’t expect pity. I just needed a place to gather my thoughts and access my personal account. He’s already frozen all of my cards. He called it a failsafe—if I ever left him in the middle of the night, all the accounts would freeze so I couldn’t clear him out. I think that hurts just as bad as everything else. That he’d think I would.”

“My mother did,” Monty said very quietly. “Notcompletely, but she devastated a few of his accounts. Took her lover on a very long, very posh Mediterranean cruise.”

“Is that why he hates Greece?” Poppy asked.

Monty burst into laughter, but the sound wasn’t full of any kind of humor. “Probably. Though there are likely other reasons he’s never told me, and I don’t want to know.” He was tense, so Bronx brought Monty’s hand up to his mouth and pressed his lips to his knuckles. Monty shot him a smile full of love and relief before he went on. “I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

“I never protected you.”

“That wasn’t your job. You’re my age, Poppy. You are not my mother. You’re not my mother figure. You’re someone who is younger and less affluent than him, and whether or not he loved you, he was taking advantage of that. I wasn’t expecting you to do anything more than you did.”

Poppy was quiet for a long, long while. When she took a breath to speak, Bronx noticed her expression had changed. Not a lot, but with a significance he wasn’t expecting to see. “That’s not the kind of person I want to be. When someone’s being mistreated, I want them to look at me and expect me to be someone they can count on. I don’t care what position I’m in. And…and that’s why I left. He begged me not to go. He told me he was sorry. He said he’d be better—that he’d do right by you.”

“Did he?” Monty asked quietly.

Poppy scoffed. “Yeah, he did. He made me a thousand promises. He said he’d get a reversal so we could have children—so he could do it all over and be a better father.” Her voice cracked. “I don’t want my children to grow up with a dad who was such a monster to the ones that came before him that they don’t speak to him.”

Monty bowed his head. “So he knows.”

“He knows,” Poppy said.

Bronx tugged on Monty’s fingers. “Knows what?”

Monty turned to meet his gaze. “That I’m done with him. I severed all ties, and I blocked his number a few days ago. I sent him an email saying that if he sets foot on my property or on yours, I would drag him to court. That I would air out all his dirty laundry, even if it didn’t win me the case against him. I would publicly humiliate him with the truth.”

“So he couldn’t get you for slander,” Poppy finished softly.

Monty took in a deep breath and let it out in a slow exhale. “I didn’t give him the chance to respond. I figured he didn’t care.”

“He didn’t, until he saw me packing,” Poppy told him. “I ended up leaving without my things when he started panicking. Once I find a place, I’ll go back for them.”

“We can help,” Monty said. “I…I don’t want to be involved, but Bronx and I have friends who will help.”

Poppy hugged her knees a little tighter. “I don’t mean to sound, like, sexist or whatever, but I don’t think I can stand to be around a bunch of men right now.”

Dani, Bronx thought with a small grin. “Don’t worry, we can help with that too.”

Monty detached his hand from Bronx and stood up. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”

Bronx wanted to go with him, but he knew Monty probably needed the moment to himself. As much as he believed Poppy that she wasn’t trying to disrupt lives, she had. All of this had thrown Monty, and Bronx knew it was going to take a while for him to find his peaceagain.

But he would be patient. He would be here, for as long as Monty needed him, and nearby for when Monty didn’t.

“He’s lucky to have you,” Poppy said, breaking the silence.

Bronx chuckled. “I think you got that backwards.”

“No, I don’t. I’m well aware of what a good person Monty is, but that doesn’t mean he’s not lucky. Or maybe it was fate that he found you. Whatever the case, I hope it happens to me someday. I have a lot to work on, but you two give me hope.”

Bronx wanted to tell her she might need to change the sort of man she went after because he had a feeling Rod wasn’t as charming or clever as Poppy made him out to be. In his experience, red flags were always obvious. But sometimes it was easier to pretend they were all shades of grey.

The glass had shattered for her though. He could see that. She had the same look he did when he realized that Jules was always going to be the same man, and no amount of love and support would ever change that. It helped that Bronx hadn’t been in love with Jules when that realization hit him, but he could see the look on Poppy’s face.

She was heartbroken. She was in love, but there was nothing she could do to make it work.

Bronx wanted to hug her, but she’d made it clear that wouldn’t be welcome.

“This is for you.” Bronx startled at the sound of Monty’s voice. His footsteps were heavy on the patio, and then he appeared in Bronx’s eyeline. Leaning over, he set something down on the little table. A wad of cash folded inside a money clip.

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