Page 69 of The Ruthless and the Strong

“Oh, Lizzie. I’m sorry.”

I wiped away my tears quickly and turned to her. “Nothing to be sorry about. It’s not your fault.”

“I wish you had never left Chicago to begin with.”

Somehow, I thought my divorce would have happened quicker had we stayed here.

“I slept with Max,” I blurted out.

“Whoa.”

A hint of amusement came over me at her one-word reaction, and then I was full-blown laughing. Olivia joined me shortly, and then we were laughing in the car like two maniacs.

I wiped away the tears that had fallen and looked at her. She was grinning at me.

“I want to say I’m surprised, but I’m really not.”

Now I was surprised. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah. You know, I always thought Max stayed alone all this time because of me. I was sure that was true when I was little, no matter how much he denied it.”

I nodded in agreement. I’d thought so, too.

“But since I married Mason and he didn’t have to be there for me so much, I still wondered why he’s still not attached.”

My heart clenched at the thought of Max being attached to someone who wasn’t me. It was stupid, I knew that, but as selfish as it sounded, I was glad he was still single even after my divorce.

“But now, I know the reason.” She gave me a pointed look.

My eyebrows raised in surprise, and then I was laughing over the silly notion. “Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious.”

That wiped away all my amusement. “I don’t think so. The very thought that he’s been waiting for me all this time is absurd.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” I answered. “Because I had been married for most of that time. How would he have known my marriage wouldn’t work out?”

She shrugged. “I guess that’s something you have to ask him yourself. But I’m telling you, I’m not wrong.”

I didn’t answer her. Because as much as it thrilled me to think that he had been waiting for me all this time, I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.

It didn’t seem real. Perhaps I had fantasized about this so much, I was now seeing things that weren’t there, or maybe I was dreaming, and any moment now, I would wake up back in the home Sam and I shared in California.

I looked over and shot her a smile I didn’t exactly feel, directing my head outside. “Come on, let’s go in and see our dreams come true.”

She let out a happy sigh, because even though it was my story that was being brought to life, this was Olivia’s dream as well. To make it all happen.

“Let’s go,” she said, opening the door. I followed her and we walked in there, our arms entwined and with matching smiles on both our faces.

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