Page 51 (2/2)

Lia at his sides He sets his glare onto Jackson “If you’re such a man, tell her what you’ve done”

“Tell me what?” I demand

Everything is fine, and I’ until Jackson looks atthat sends an icy bite into ain, softer this time

I hugto warround, unable to look at me or Jackson That’s when I understand how bad this all really is She can’t even face what Jackson has done When I look at Jackson again, the guilt in his eyes is heady and raw “All right, enough,” I snap, done with all of this “Will so on?”

“I will” Liam reaches into his pocket and then clicks a few buttons before passing me his phone

The view beforeany of it The email from Jackson to Liam is there, sent on the day we arrived in Muskoka, with the selfie that Jackson took of us before I pushed hi how intense it had been having Jackson that close I scan over our smiles but then my heart sinks and all I see are the words that Jackson wrote to Liam

You took aswhat’s yours

Jackson

Seconds feel like minutes while Mallory stares down at the phone in her hand, the light in her eyes slowly fading I knohat she’s looking at— Sending that eret Not because Liam doesn’t deserve to be taunted, he does, but because of how the eotten all about thetoward my face And now I don’t even knohy I sent it in the first place I don’t feel like that saive a fuck about Lia the woman before me

When Mallory finally lifts her head, her eyes“You sent this?”

I nod “I did” Sure, I could say that I sent it before everything happened between us I could give reasons and excuses but the dae is done The betrayal in her eyes in there Just as I’ve coood head on her shoulders, I know she’s too s back from this

She glances back down at the phone again, andThe slight hunch to her shoulders The way her thu over the screen

So inside me cracks then shatters

The entire room fades away as she beco her expression She bleeds emotion, I’ve cos fully and completely, and she expresses pain in the same way Her heartbreak is there in the way her brows are drawn, in the depths of her pretty eyes She keeps looking at the photo as if togaure out if I’ve been lying to her If I am the man Liam claims me to be

And she deserves none of it