Page 42 of The Games We Play
And beneath it, two names.
Mimi Martin.
Mac Ridley.
The world tilted.
I stumbled back, my shoulder hitting the door as my grip on the papers tightened. My pulse roared in my ears, drowning out every other sound.
Mac.Married.
The truth slammed into me like a freight train, knocking the air from my lungs.
She was hiswife.
12
MAC
PRESENT DAY
Istared into Penny’s eyes, searching for something—anything—but the sparkle that had once lived there was gone.
Her features were flat, distant, like she was reliving that moment all over again, feeling every ounce of betrayal, every shred of heartbreak.
That morning, when I’d come back… she was already gone.
She’d left in a hurry, so fast that the ghost of her still lingered. Her shampoo was still sitting in my bathroom, her clothes tucked neatly in my top drawer. As if she’d vanished, as if this world we’d built in the shadows had never really existed at all.
I hadn’t had the courage to get rid of any of it, either.
I’d walked in, arms full of food, a stupidly big smile on my face, expecting to see my girl bare-legged, wrapped in my clothes while she waited for me to come back. Instead, I was met with an empty apartment.
Then, I saw it.
The yellow envelope, ripped open on my dining room table.
The second my eyes scanned the words, realization crashed into me, all-consuming and suffocating. Even now, months later,I felt that same searing panic—the kind that clawed through my chest and made it hard to breathe.
Before Penny, I didn’t care about much. I was easygoing, letting life roll off my back, never letting anything stick to me. But after that morning? I barely recognized myself. I’d been drowning in guilt and regret since.
I’d spent the time avoiding everything, thinking she would come around and all would fall back into what it was. I was stupid to think a woman like her would ever settle.
Coming here tonight was my last shot. My final attempt before I let us slip through my fingers for good.
I should’ve chased after her the second I saw those papers. Should’ve barged in, told her everything,made it crystal clear.But I didn’t.
I played the coward.
I convinced myself she would come back to me. Then… time passed, and it felt too late.
Days. Weeks. It never got better, in fact, the more I watched her from a distance, the worse it felt.
Sitting at Penny’s table for hours now, I watched as she did everything in her power to ignore me. I asked her about work. I apologized too many times to count.
I wasn’t leaving until we worked something out.
Still, we sat.
