Page 83 of First Comes Marriage

“Shred it.”

“I can send it over for you to review—”

“I don’t want to fucking review it. Shred it.” Baz scrubbedhis hand over his face.

“We can counter,” his lawyer continued. “Obviously your father-in-law got overzealous in trying to protect his daughter.”

“We’re not countering. I’m not signing. Shred the fucking thing.”

Baz hung up as his lawyer continued to talk aboutnegotiations. As if he was going to negotiate with Sabrina when she was already planning her exit. And not just any exit, but one that would fuck him over spectacularly. As if her family hadn’t humiliated him enough for one lifetime.

He’d trusted her. And the hell of it was, if she’d asked him, he would have signed any damn thing she wanted. He’d rip out his own heart and serve it to her on a silver platter if it meant he could keep her, if it meant she’d let him in.

Idiot. This is why you don’t get emotional. This is why you don’t let your guard down.

He stared at himself in the mirror, rolling the tension from his neck and straightening his cuffs. He should have known something like this was coming, that she was another person who wanted to use him up and throw him away.

This time he’d be the first to walk away.

Baz left the bathroom and made his way back into the living room where the party was in full swing. He must have been in there longer than he’d realized. As he made his way through the gathered crowd of familiar faces, he caught bits and pieces of conversation, all blending together into a wall of sound.

“So I said to my Ricky, I said, you have to make a map so the people who get stuck in the corn maze can find their way out again.” Cheryl patted her husband’s knee beside her, her loud storytelling rising above the din. “And he said, Cheryl, honey, if they get lost in the corn, they can eat their way out.” She roared with laughter.

On the other side of the room, Gavin’s and Baz’s moms ooo-ed and ahh-ed over a hand-knit baby blanket Ethan’smother had sent from Florida. In another corner, Kyla and Gavin chatted happily with Natalia from the lingerie shop, Gavin shooting adoring looks at his fiancée as she grew more animated in her speech. At the center of it all, Jamie and Tessa held court, his hand resting protectively on her belly.

Baz needed to go. Jamie and Tessa would understand. He needed air.

He rounded the corner, determined to slip out the back door in the kitchen, and came face to face with his wife.

Sabrina leaned against the wall, clutching her glass of punch as if it were a lifeline. The sight of her was like a sucker punch to the gut. She wore a silky green blouse that brought out her eyes, the first few buttons undone, tucked into one of her pencil skirts. This one was a cream color, cut above the knee, and for a moment he wanted to drop to his knees at her feet and beg her to love him. To press his lips to the soft skin on the inside of her thigh and plead his case. He could love her enough for the both of them. He could—

He knew the instant she caught sight of him, the way her spine straightened, the smile that spread over her lips. They were painted red again, the color vibrant against her pale skin. Was she paler than usual? Her eyes lit up and she raised a hand in greeting, as though he might not have seen her yet. As though she wasn’t always the first person he saw in any room. As though she wasn’t theonlyone he saw.

Enough.

Her brow furrowed and her head cocked to the side in confusion as she registered his immovable stance. He couldn’t go any nearer to her without risking flinging himself at her feet and exacerbating his humiliation. And he couldn’t walk away.

How was he supposed to walk away from her?

Christ, how was he supposed to live without her now that he knew what it was like to love her, even if she didn’t love him back?

She set her glass down on a nearby table and made her way across the room to him, but she stopped short a few inches further from him than normal. As though she was afraid to touch him.

He should be grateful. If she touched him, he wasn’t sure what he would do. Push her away? Pull her closer? Rip off that goddamn skirt and fuck her right there in the middle of the party, as though it would somehow prove that she was his? As though he could fuck her into loving him?

Hadn’t he tried that already?

And she was still going to leave. More than that, she was going to burn down the fucking house on her way out the door.

“You alright?” she asked, reaching up to touch his forehead, but then she seemed to think better of it and dropped her hand. “Did something happen?”

***

Something wasn’t right—not only the pain in her lower abdomen, but something with Sebastian. Sabrina had been relieved to see him when he appeared in the kitchen, but then something had shifted. His face had hardened, jaw clenched. And he seemed pale, drawn, like maybe he wasn’t feeling well either. Maybe they’d both gotten food poisoning.

She really hoped it was food poisoning.

“You alright? Did something happen?” she asked.

---