Page 88 of Wicked Dix

My mouth drops open. Does she really mean that?

“I’m getting stronger, Dixon,” she reveals, her voice filled with conviction. “I could have dealt with it. If only you’d have given me credit and told me the truth, none of this would have happened.”

I can’t…I need a minute to digest this.

“With you by my side, I felt like I could achieve anything.”

Her use of past tense is the beginning of the end. “And now?”

“Now?” She lowers her gaze. “Now I feel sick.You…make me sick. Everything that we once shared is a lie.”

I don’t blame her. I make myself feel sick. As I process everything, I can’t help but wonder what exactly Juliet told Madison. It appears she was blind to the entire sins of my ways. So whatdidJuliet tell her?

“What did Juliet tell you?”

“She told me that you propositioned her for sex,” she reveals, pulling a sickened face.

“What?” I ask, matching her expression.

“And that you’ve been doing so the entire time we’ve been dating. She also said that you manipulated and preyed on her when she was weak. She confessed to having sex with you—twice.”

I’m left standing speechless at the lies Juliet has told.

And sadly, the story doesn’t end here. “She knows that she’s sick, and she’s sorry for not helping me with Dylan. She told me that’s why she came to see you in the first place. To help her deal with her guilt over what she saw. And since then, you’ve been obsessed with her and stalking her. She’s afraid of you, Dixon. And she said that I should be, too.”

“That’s bullshit!” I yell when I can finally find my voice. “I deal in addiction, not canoodling patients’ guilty consciences away!”

That bitch. She set me up. She knew I’d think the worst and believe she had told Madison everything. Instead, that’s what I did. All she had to do was plant the seed—just like I did with her.

She beat me at my own game. Again.

I can’t just stand here while Juliet is paraded around as the victim. “Maddy, c’mon! This is Juliet you’re talking about. You cannot possibly believe her and this fictional tale?”

She shrugs in defeat. “I don’t want to believe it. But you’re here now, aren’t you?” she questions me. I can see the war raging behind her eyes. She doesn’t want to believe, but I’ve betrayed her in the worst possible way.

I have to make this right. “I told you why.”

“But how can I trust you?” she asks, shaking her head. “After everything you’ve just told me, I don’t even know who you are.”

Her confession breaks me, but I suck in a deep breath and continue to fight. “You know Juliet is no angel. Look at what she did to you!”

Juliet is confessing to this fabricated story so she looks like the victim and comes out of this unscathed. The NDA meansjack shit because I believe she now couldn’t care less about ruining my career. She has just gone one better—she’s ruined my life. She would never drag her name through the tabloids because that would ruin the fantasy world she’s worked so hard to build. She told Madison that we only slept together twice for appearance sake’s only. If Dylan were to ever find out about her infidelity, he could certainly forgive her for the two slipups, but not for the countless ones she’s really made.

And now that she’s got an iota of Madison’s sympathy, she’s going to play on that and use it any way that she can. I look like the deviant while Juliet wipes her hands clean.

“Madison?” I urgently press.

“I don’t know what to believe!” she shouts, cradling her head and massaging her temples.

“Believe me! Why would I make all this shit up? It most certainly is not in my favor to do so. I’m telling you the truth,” I state while I hear one of the spectators hum in accord. “Juliet is a lying, manipulative, calculating piece of work. I want nothing to do with her. I haven’t from the moment I ended things with her. She can’t stand that I love you and not her. She can’t stand that your brother loves—” I quickly stop when she waves a hand out in front of her and covers her mouth to stop herself from being sick.

“Please, Maddy. Believe me. I did this…I did all of this…for you. I wanted to tell you so many times. I was just so afraid you’d leave me. I couldn’t risk losing you,” I pathetically confess, searching her face for answers.

“You should have been honest.” She lowers her gaze and looks at her sneakers.

“I know that. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” I take a small step forward. My hands are desperate to touch her, my arms desperate to hold her.

But her broken reply reveals that I’ll never hold or touch her ever again. “No,” she whispers, her hair shrouding her face.

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