Page 23 of Where the Little Birds Are (Little Bird Duet 2)

“Don’t be so dramatic.” She opens the bottle of water I gave her. “The name just suits you. Are you seriously angry over something so silly?”

“And what about you?”

She just blinks.

I grip the beer. “Why didn’t you take the name when we got married if you like it so much? You insisted on keeping yours and I respected that.”

“People know me as Lena Dasani.”

Seeing that we’re going nowhere with this, I tap the paperwork. “This needs to happen. It’s about you and me and nobody else. We don’t love each other, Lena. We don’t even share the same last name after all this time. We spend more time apart than together, and half the time we’re arguing over why that is.”

She leans back in her chair after crossing one leg over the other. “Don’t lie to me like you lie to yourself, Corbin. This has everything to do with somebody else.”

“Don’t bring her—”

She unzips her bag and pulls something out of it, dropping a large yellow envelope on the table in front of me. Hesitantly taking it, I reach inside and pull out pictures. Pictures of me. Pictures of Kinley. Pictures of us together.

I go through one by one, jaw ticking over what I’m seeing. My eyes dart up, lips parted, as I lock my gaze with her victorious smirk. She looks vindictive. It gives me pause for a moment, wondering what exactly I ever saw in her. I come up blank. “What the hell are these, Lena?”

She scoffs. “Don’t be stupid.”

Glancing back down at a picture of Kinley walking into my trailer on set, my eye twitches. Fingers clenching around the image, I say, “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

Her chair scrapes back as she stands, grabbing the bottle of water. “You know how much my reputation means to me. It’s why we’ve managed to make this work for so long. I will not be made a fool of because of your actions.”

“What do you want from me?” I growl, staring at the stranger standing there. Her pride is hurt, and she wants to punish me. I get it. That doesn’t mean I understand what her endgame is.

She unclips her sunglasses from her shirt and slides them on. Her lips form the fakest smile I’ve ever seen, and I wonder how many times she’s flashed me it without me even realizing. “You can’t give me what I want anymore. But perhaps we can come to an agreement.”

An agreement?

“What are you talking about?”

She positions her purse over her shoulder and grips the strap. “We don’t need to be like other cliché celebrity couples who don’t last. Let the public think we’re happy. Behind closed doors we can do whatever we want.” She shrugs. “With whomever we want.”

My jaw locks. “Absolutely not.”

She hums and backs up. “Then I guess you and your little toy are going to be very unhappy with the results.”

I throw down the pictures she gave me and pick up the divorce papers. “Don’t do this, Lena. You’re better than that.”

She laughs and turns her back to me. “I could say the same thing about you. I never took you as a cheater, but here we are. Consider my offer, husband. It’s the only way you’ll protect your side piece from a world of hurt.”

The door opens and closes before I can get another word in, leaving me with a new type of anger I’ve never felt before. Staring down at the pile of pictures scattered in front of me, I realize some of these are the same ones the press released over the past month.

“Motherfucker,” I growl, grabbing my beer bottle and throwing it as hard as I can against the wall. The sound of glass shattering is music to my ears as I shakily gather the pictures and shove them back into the envelope.

Grabbing my phone, I dial my manager’s number and rest my forehead in my palm. He picks up on the first ring. “I need you to do me a favor. Don’t ask any questions. Get me?”

He curses. “What did you do?”

Walked away from Kinley Thomas.

Chapter Nine

Kinley / 17

Zach startles me by draping an arm over my shoulder as I walk down the school hall. He pulls me in and rustles my hair until I jab his ribs with my elbow. He knows I hate it when he does that.

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