Page 83 of Pucking Wild

“How can it not? I’ll call MK in the morning. We’ll have them issue a retraction that nothing was going on between us at the wedding—”

“It won’t matter,” she says over me.

“Why not—”

“Because I told Troy it was true.”

We stand there, two feet apart at the end of the beach boardwalk, our eyes locked on each other. The wind whips a few strands of her red curls across her face. She flicks them back, not breaking our gaze. I don’t know what emotions are showing on my face. Her only look is guilt, and it’s tearing me apart.

“You told him what was true?” I say at last.

“I told him we were together that night. I told him we fucked. I told him it was all true.”

I groan. “Jesus, Tess.”

“You don’t know him,” she says, her voice almost pleading. “You don’t know how vicious he can be. I tried denying it at first. I denied it to HR and the other partners, but that only seemed to make him happy.”

“Jesus.”

“Don’t you see? Hewantedme to deny it,” she explains. “He wanted to watch me flail. He wanted to watch me tell the truth and suffer for it. That’s what he does. He twists me up and makes me think that lies are truth and that his version of reality is the only version. He did it our whole marriage.”

Okay, I know I haven’t met every person in the world, but in this moment, I’m pretty confident that Troy Owens is the worst one. He’s at least top fifty.

She steps in closer, taking both my hands in hers. “Ryan, please believe me that I didn’t intend to hurt you or drag you in deeper to all this mess. But I told him the lie. I told him we were together. He wanted to burn me down, so I gave him the match.”

My mind works in overdrive as I piece it all together. “Walk me through the timeline. The wedding pictures broke after Christmas, right?”

She nods, letting go of my hands.

“So, after Christmas, the pictures get leaked online. What happened next?”

“I went into work, and Troy already had it all arranged,” she replies. “He blindsided me with an early morning HR meeting. They had the pictures and the bullshit song and dance about morality. The coup was already over. They put me on leave, and I left. I came here.”

It doesn’t add up. “You’re leaving things out. Pieces are missing.”

“Ryan—”

“If I’m in this with you, I’m in it,” I press. “I have to know the timeline. Start again. You go to your HR meeting, they show you the photos and put you on leave, yes?”

She nods.

“Then what happened?”

“I came here,” she replies.

I glare at her. “You’re fast-forwarding.”

“Ryan—”

“Between the HR meeting and you arriving here in Jacksonville, what else happened?” I say over her. “You don’t just pack up your entire life and get on a plane. You don’t throw your phone out of a moving car—”

“Maybe I do,” she counters with a scowl. “You don’t know me, Ryan.”

“You’ve called your ex controlling, vicious, and dangerous. You’re scared of him, aren’t you? I see it in your eyes. He gave you a reason to be scared. What did he do?”

She shakes her head. “Please, don’t. It doesn’t matter—”

“What did he do, Tess?”

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