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“No matter what I fucking do, I can’t seem to make the right choice. Easton’s furious with me. My father’s just now speaking to me. I can’t please either to save my sanity. We made a mistake, and we have to—”

“No,youdid, a major one, but not the mistake you think you made. He’s figured it out already. If you don’t come fix this right the fuck now, you’re going to damage your relationship in a way that’s irreparable. His love for you has made him too weak to fucking fight for himself. It’s never going to be right, Natalie, you know that. You’ll never have a fair shot together, but not because of your baggage—and it might not ever be okay, but neither of your lives are going to be bearable if you throw this away. We all know it. Even your fucking selfish parents know it. Yet they go to sleep at night, content with their own fucking choices. Don’t forget, after they successfully separate you, they’ll haveeach other.”

More tears slide down my cheeks. I feel the truth of his statement weighing on my heart.

“I love him, Benji. He means everything to me.”

“Then it should be crystal clear. Jesus, I’m so goddamn sick of witnessing this over and over again. If that’s the truth, Natalie, then make a choice, make him the priority he deserves to be—give him his rightful fucking place as your husband and partner, which is number fuckingone. Stop denying his significance in your life. The box is open now. It can’t be closed.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Itisthat simple if you cut everything but what matters most out. I’ve watched my parents tear each other apart due to pride, insecurity, and selfish shit for years. I won’t watch this happen to my brother. You need to figure your shit outnow.”

“I’m trying.”

“You’refailingmiserably.”

“I would never ask him to give up his relationship with his father or his career for me!”

“That’s the difference between you and him because he would do it without you asking.”

“But he’s not the one in that position to give it up, is he? He doesn’t have to. This is all on me, isn’t it?” I grip the phone. “I warned him, over and over. I told him this would happen, and I seem to be the one paying for it the most!”

Silence.

“Benji?”

“Just got a text from Reid,” he clips out. “He’s with him.”

“Okay,” I nod furiously as my vision blurs. “Okay. Benji . . . listen to me, please. Easton’s not answering for me because he thinks I filed for divorce, so he hung up on me, but I didn’t. My father did it without my knowledge, and the law firm sent the email while we were arguing. He thinks I filed,” I croak. “Benji, are you there?”

Silence greets me for several seconds before, “Then let him think it.”

“What? No! I can’t—”

“The fuck you can’t. Look at what you’ve done to him already! You’re ruining his goddamn life, and he deserves better! You know he does. If you refuse to be the wife he deserves, then at least have the fucking decency to let him go.”

“Benji, please—”

“It seems like you’ve made your decision, Natalie, so stick to it. He made his decision the day you met, and he can’t comprehend, even after this shitshow, how it wasn’t the right one. He chose you, and he’ll never call it a mistake. It’s the hill he’ll die on. I know that much is fucking fact, so if you can’t choose him now, that’s your decision, and make it final. Don’t lead him on any longer, don’t answer his fucking calls, you stop existing for him. I have to go.”

The line goes dead as I lower my phone, my racing mind coming to a dead stop at the truth of the matter as I lose my grip on it. My lifeline slides down my dress and cracks somewhere on the sidewalk, the sound pairing perfectly with my inner destruction.

No matter what I decide to do now, there will be no victor in the war between Butler and Crowne, and there wasn’t in the last, either. The end of our stolen love story was always going to be as I predicted—disastrous. Reason being, Stella had a choice, but Ineverhave.

Even if Easton thinks I do, and Benji thinks I do, even if my father still believes I do—for me, a choice never existed.

Twenty minutes after my father’s toast, when the cake is cut and pictures are taken, I sit across the eight top studying the man I’ve deemed my hero for the entirety of my life. Catching my eye, he stares back at me before tilting his head with a curious look, a grin forming on his lips. Slowly, I lift my cracked phone to him and shake it in prompt. Grin growing, he pulls his own phone from his pocket, playing along. Grabbing my clutch, I walk over to where he sits and reach him just as he opens the email. I press a kiss to his cheek as he curses under his breath and softly whispers my name. Ignoring his attempt to gain my audience for any sort of explanation, I pull back to look him right in the eye. “Congratulations, Daddy. The paper isall yours.”

SIXTY

“Again”

Sasha Alex Sloan

Natalie

Damon and Holly sit on the other side of the booth gawking at me as I suck copious amounts of frozen tequila through a straw.

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