Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“He wouldn’t have risked his chance with you for anything.”
“For you, he would,” she said. “And I think we still would have ended up together…somehow.”
Tired of her angry stare, I looked away.
“What happened with Astrid?” she repeated.
I gave a sigh. “Not relevant to this conversation.”
“Something set you off.”
“I told you what set me off, Scarlett.” I stared at her again, my rage seeping through my pores.
“Axel is devastated. Please talk to him.”
“No.”
“Theo—”
“He’s dead to me.”
She stilled at my harsh words. Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine, and her breaths came in slow and deep. “I know that’s not true.”
“Then take off your clothes, get on the bed, and we’ll finish what we started. Let’s see how much he means to me.”
A heavy mixture of sorrow and disappointment and even mild offense came into her gaze. “This isn’t you.”
“Leave, Scarlett.”
“No.” Her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m not leaving here until I can tell Axel everything is okay. Because I’ve never seen him like this. It’s like…” She shook her head. “It’s like he’s lost his reason to live.”
“Funny,” I said. “Because I’ve lost mine too.” I walked past her into the sitting room, making a drink at the bar. I didn’t offer her one before I moved to the armchair, sat down, and cracked my knuckles.
She took a seat on the couch and stared at the coffee table and the TV before she looked at me again.
I grabbed a cigar and lit up.
“What happened?” she asked quietly.
“You need to be more specific, beautiful.”
“With Astrid.”
“She chose him. Simple as that.” I pulled the smoke into my mouth before I released it and watched it rise to the ceiling. “I told her about my dead wife, and she still chose him.”
Instead of hitting me with a bunch of questions, she watched me in silence. “I—I didn’t know you were married.”
I looked at her as I let the smoke roll around in my mouth. “I assumed Axel told you.”
“No.”
I looked at the TV again and let the cigar rest between my fingertips.
“Axel doesn’t share your secrets. Not even with me.”
My intuition was like a metal detector, and it didn’t beep when she spoke. Her quiet surprise seemed sincere.
“It’s done,” I said. “Which is fine, because I wasn’t looking for a relationship anyway.”
“It seems like you were already in one.”
“You can’t be in a relationship with someone who’s in a relationship with someone else.”
“You can’t be heartbroken unless you gave your heart to someone to break.”
I puffed on the cigar again. “I’m not heartbroken. I’m just…fucking over it. Bolton treats her like shit, and she’s too fucking stupid to see it.”
“She’s not stupid, Theo. She just wants to see the good in people, the way she sees the good in you.”
“I’m not a good man, but I’m not a liar and a manipulator and a maniac.” I released the smoke from my mouth. “I know I fucked up, I know it’s my fault, but I’m still pissed off. I can accept not having her. But I can’t accept her choosing him. Not when she deserves better.”
Scarlett continued to look at me with sadness. “Yeah.”
“I found out what happened with that phone call.”
“Tell me.”
“Some guys broke in to her apartment in the middle of the night, and she called me for help.”
“Oh my god,” she said with a gasp. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” I said quickly. “Bolton staged the whole thing.”
“What!”
“I can’t give her the proof, but I know I’m right.”
“So this guy terrorized his own wife?”
“Yes. To drive her straight into his arms. It’s brilliant, but fucked up. If only I had picked up the phone, showed up, snapped their necks, and taken her home. We wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“And you wouldn’t be mad at Axel right now.”
I puffed out the smoke from my mouth and looked at her.
“Because we both know Axel isn’t the one you’re mad at.”
I was mad at myself. I’d played a sloppy game and lost the match. I didn’t realize how big the pot was until I’d already put down a shitty hand.
“There’s nothing that can be done?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“There’s always something—”
“She picked him. It’s over.” I’d fought not once, but twice, and that was the most I was willing to give to anyone. I could hand her the glasses, but if she didn’t want to look at the fine print on the page, I couldn’t make her read it. “I told her the real reason I ended things, that I made a deal with Bolton. The look on her face… I knew it was over.”
9
ASTRID
It didn’t seem like Bolton knew about Theo’s visit to the gallery.
I held my breath for an entire week before I knew I was out of the woods.
Bolton was at the headquarters for most of the nights, but he picked me up and took me to lunch during the day, and then we had an early dinner together before he was gone again. It felt somewhat normal.