“Yes, sir,” she said fearfully. “I’m sorry.” She pulled the door closed behind her.
“It wasn’t me,” Benton insisted, turning his attention back to me. “I wouldn’t have done that to Liv.”
“Oh, I guess youwereinterested in signing us with your damn ten million dollar bonus then?”
“No,” he confessed. “I wasn’t. Look, I’ll admit it. My intentions weren’t exactly honorable. I didn’t want you to be together, but I wouldn’t have hurt her like that. You maybe, but not her. I didn’t talk to the press, but I know who did. Will you sit down?” He gestured to one of the leather armchairs in front of his desk.
I narrowed my eyes but said nothing.
“Fine. I’m going to sit down, though.” He rounded the desk to the oversized office chair, dabbing at the blood that continued to run down his face. “If the music thing doesn’t work out, you could have a promising career as an MMA fighter.”
“If it wasn’t you, who was it, Benton?” I asked, not at all interested in hearing his stupid jokes.
“I saw you and Liv together at that Halloween party in Las Vegas.”
“What?” My heart sank. “She never told me that.”
“I don’t think she saw me.” He shook his head. “If she did, she didn’t say anything. She walked right past me, and I followed her. That’s when I saw her with you. My girlfriend Shelby recognized you from your stupid band, and I started doing some digging, trying to figure out what you were doing with her.”
“I don’t know why the fuck you cared.” My jaw tightened involuntarily. “Youleft her for someone else. Why the hell did it matter to you that she’d moved on?”
“It made me realize I missed her.”
“So, you decided to come check me out?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I wanted to know who the hell you were, and then I watched the show that night. I watchedher,and that’s when I knew I was still in love with her. I told Shelby I’d made a mistake, that I realized I wanted my wife back. I realized how special Liv was, and naturally, Shelby was pretty upset.”
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that Benton?” I scoffed. “What was the plan? Were you going to try and break us up?”
“I wanted to,” he admitted. “I’d planned to call Liv and see if I could convince her to talk to me, but before I could… well, you saw it all over the internet. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
“Liv was the one who had to pay for what you did to that girl,” I snapped. “Livwas the one who suffered, and she left me because of it.”
“Really?” His eyes widened, amused.
“Fuck you!” I slung my hand across the desk, knocking the pencil cup and the various trinkets to the floor in one swift movement. “You crushed her spirit. Liv has always been special, but you snuffed out her light every chance you got.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “What do you want me to say? That I’m a piece of shit? That I wasn’t the husband she deserved? I know that. Don’t you think I know that now? I made a mess of my life and hers. I blamed her for… for things that were out of her control. All of that is true, but it doesn’t change the past.”
“She was happy with me. I never wanted to change a single hair on her head. She’s fucking perfect, and you never deserved her.”
“Well,” he chuckled flatly. “Finally, something we can agree on. But if she was so happy with you, Jaxon, why did she leave you?”
“Because she didn’t want to be in someone else’s shadow again. She didn’t want the media circus to reflect badly on me and the band, and frankly, because she doesn’t think she deserves even a shred of happiness, and that’s onyou.”
He averted his gaze to his hands folded in his lap. “I know I messed up. I know I didn’t treat her right, but I want to fix it.”
“If you really wanted to fix it, you should have let her go. You should have let her find some fucking happiness with someone who truly loves her.”
“I do love her.”
“No,Ilove her, Benton.” I slammed my fists on the desk so hard that what little was left on the surface shook. “Liv was my entire fucking world and because of you, I lost her.”
“I didn’t—”
I shoved my finger in his face. “Youbroke her, Benton, and I hope it haunts you for the rest of your pathetic life.”
I turned and walked out of Benton Wyatt’s office, slamming the door. I barreled down the hall past reception, and once I was back in the Mercedes, I peeled out of the parking lot with tears streaming down my face.
