Page 131 of Against All Odds

My eyes instantly fill with tears. They can’t do this. I can’t stay here. This is absolutely unfair. I fight back the tears, the pain that fills my heart at the idea of having to stay here.

“Absolutely not. She’s not a flight risk,” Gail says. “If anything, we can show that Mr. Leone has wavered this entire time. He hasn’t even seen his wife once since they separated or shown any interest in his child.”

“She cut me off!” Dylan says. “She left and then just filed for divorce.”

I know I’m supposed to stay quiet, but I can’t hold back anymore. The fact that he is asking me to leave Ember Falls is too much. I can’t spend the next five months here while Everett is in Virginia. Not when I can be with him. Not when I know he can’t be here.

“You cheated on me! It was literally all over the television. I didn’t leave. You pushed me out.”

“And now you’re punishingme,” he growls. “I’m being dragged through the mud and called all kinds of names.”

Here’s the opening that Catherine talked about. My chance to show him the way out, which I hoped would show itself.

Image and his work are his sole focus. It’s not the baby or me—it’s what will serve him.

Whereas my goals are what’s best for my child, which isn’t Dylan, and it isn’t me being stuck here because of co-parenting demands.

“Can you give us a minute alone to talk?” I ask the room.

Gail shakes her head. “I would strongly advise against it.”

I ignore her and look at Dylan. “We used to be able to talk. I’d like to think we loved each other once. Surely we can discuss things.”

Dylan looks to his lawyer. “Leave.”

“Mr. Leone.”

Dylan’s arrogance is above his sense. “Give us ten minutes.”

Gail’s pleading eyes tell me how much of a bad idea she thinks this is. I nod once. “Please.”

She leans in, whispering in my ear. “You have the upper hand in this. Don’t give that up and agree to anything you don’t want.”

“Thank you.”

Gail hesitantly rises, extending her hand toward the door to show his legal team out, and she follows, closing the door behind her with a click.

The two of us sit here, and Dylan’s mask drops, revealing the man I knew a long time ago.

Please let him be the man I once knew, if even for just ten minutes.

“Dylan,” I say softly. “Why are you doing this?”

He looks over at the wall, shaking his head slightly. “You’re with him?”

“Who?”

His gaze moves back to mine. “Him. Everett. The guy that you loved before me.”

I blink, confused and a little unsure why the hell that is the first thing he’s talking about. “What does that matter? You cheated on me,” I say slowly, keeping my voice even and without censure. I need him to be relaxed through this. “You were happy without me. I don’t understand why you would do this.”

“Do you know why she left me?” Dylan asks with a huff.

“Well, I know what the press and your statements have said, which is what has me back here now.”

Dylan shifts in his seat and turns to me. “She said I wasn’t over you. That I clearly still loved you, which is why we went on that trip together, why she had to force my hand for me to make a decision. She leaked those photos of me and her so that you’d leave, which you did. So I officially got with her, and for a while it was great. It was everything that we didn’t have. Whitney loves the spotlight, she thrives in it, where you wanted no part of it. When she sees the cameras, she turns to get a better angle, kisses me so that they’ll capture it, where you hid behind me or refused to even be seen with me. I wanted to be in the light, Violet. You didn’t.”

As I listen to him, I don’t feel sadness for myself, considering he’s talking about all the things wrong with me. I just don’t ... care.

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