Page 47 of How to Win the Wild Billionaire

Steps to Treating the Pain of a Breakup

How to Heal Fast After Your Heart Has Been Broken

Stupid internet and its super-stupid advice.

She needed a fall-out-of-love pill, something to erase everything she felt, to help her forget the possibilities of the amazing life they could have had together. Her vision for her future coalesced nine days ago when she’d seen the judge give his surprising verdict, shortly after he heard all the evidence around why she should keep custody of Olivia.

The judge said nice things: that anyone could see that she and Liv were a family and that they were a tight unit. It was a pity that there wasn’t a father figure in Liv’s life. He was concerned about the animosity between her and her parents but it wasn’t a reason to deny her custody.

Maybe they could work it out, the judge suggested, before awarding her permanent custody there and then.

Instead of reacting jubilantly, Bay, her arms around Liv’s little waist, buried her face in the child’s hair, biting her own lip to stop herself from yelling that Liv did have a father figure in her life, a man they both adored. A man she was completely, thoroughly, impossibly in love with.

But, because he was currently running away from reality, from a situation he no longer had control over, she was alone.

She shouldn’t be alone. Neither of them should. They were better, stronger, together.

Bay shut down her laptop, thinking that Digby was taking a long time to reach the same conclusion. And, she reminded herself, he might never get to that point.You can’t force people to love you the way you need to be loved, Bay, you know this.

Love meant different things to different people: to her father, it was control, to Digby it represented fear and loss.

Either way, both the men she’d loved most in her life had taken her love, then dismissed her and left her swinging in the wind.

Damn them.

She might not be able to stop the people she loved from treating her like she was disposable but that didn’t mean they could get away with it.

After walking out of the ballroom, Bay used the staff passages to avoid the guests and finally emerged at the back of the hotel. As she walked to Digby’s house, the many reasons she was angry with him tumbled through her head.

In ten days, he never once called or even replied to her many, many messages. Not even to congratulate or acknowledge her winning the custody battle for Liv. He’d gone completely silent and it was no comfort to know that he wasn’t talking to his brand-new sister, or apparently, as she’d heard from Roisin, to Radd either.

But while he wasn’t talking to his brother, his new sister or to her, he hadn’t been alone. The tabloid press had been ecstatic about his return to the clubbing and partying scene and there had been photos in the gossip columns every day this week. He’d attended many, many parties and he’d only left the clubs when they finally closed, usually accompanied by a stacked blonde. He’d run up Table Mountain, gone skydiving and free dived with sharks off Hermanus. He’d also managed to rack up a slew of speeding tickets in six days from pushing his Ducati to higher and higher speeds.

Wild Digby Tempest-Vane was back with a vengeance and the press was salivating.

Bay just wanted to bash his head in.

How dare he? How dare he act like she and Liv, Roisin and Radd, didn’t matter? That they weren’t important enough to let them know that he was okay? They’d had such a marvelous weekend away in Mozambique and Bay thought they were on the path to creating something special. He’d been sweet and considerate and seemed to enjoy spending time with not only her but Liv. She’d tried not to, but she’d started to think, just a little, that they had a chance of a relationship, of something permanent.

What a colossal fool she’d been. From the beginning, she’d known he was going to hurt her and she wasn’t surprised by that. Although she’d never expected him to disappear, to break contact with everyone who loved him.

But someone needed to tell him his behavior was unacceptable and inexcusable. She could, just, cope with him hurting her, but she refused to condone his behavior toward Roisin.

Bay didn’t bother to knock; she just stormed into his house, shouting his name. He emerged from his study, his eyes flat and his face pale. Bay put her hand on her heart and shook her head at his gaunt cheeks, his red-rimmed eyes. “Wow, looking good, Tempest-Vane.”

“If you are going to be sarcastic you can just bugger off,” Digby told her, walking past her to head for the kitchen. He fiddled with the coffee machine, keeping his back to her. “Actually, just go, Bay. We have nothing to say to each other.”

Bay felt a red-hot surge of anger. “You might not have anything to say to me but I have a hell of a lot to say to you!”

Digby turned to face her, his hands gripping the counter behind him. “Get on with it then—I have somewhere to be.”

She wasn’t going to ask; she wasn’t going to bethatwoman. “Who is she today? Do you even know her name?”

Really, Bay, why are you asking questions you really, really don’t want to know the answer to? What is wrong with you?

Digby met her eyes and for a second, maybe less, she saw shame in his eyes. Then it disappeared and he handed her a laconic shrug. “I just call them sweetheart, they seem to like that.”

Just like she had. Bay sent him a hard look and shook her head. She didn’t believe him. He was bullshitting her. Yeah, she could easily believe that he’d been clubbing and doing all those other crazy things, but she knew he hadn’t been with another woman.

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