While the public shame of everything being leaked and Gavin obtaining complete control of my life was possible, part of me knew I had to keep fighting. There could be no stopping now.
As I made to leave, a notification on my laptop sounded as my phone buzzed as well. At first, I would have ignored it, but as I received a call, I paused in my tracks.Brent?
Why was he calling me? Did he forget only a day or so ago he confessed his underlying love for me as well as admitting to being part of Gavin’s agenda to break me down?
I debated sending him to voicemail, but decided to answer instead.
“Brent...” I muttered into the phone.
“I love you, Rosenna... and I know I don’t deserve you,”he began.
I sighed as I rubbed my temples.Not exactly a subtle conversation starter to break the ice between us, now is it?
“Brent, I don’t have time for this—” I started, but he cut me off.
“Rosenna, just listen to me,”he practically pleaded.
I furrowed my eyebrows as I remained silent, noticing his voice sounded rather sincere and almost genuine.
“I... I never thought Gavin deserved you because... I never thought he could love you. Not in the way you always wanted.”
My jaw clenched. The feeling Brent’s words instilled inside of me stung. It obviously hurt to think such a thing would be the case. I almost didn’t want to believe him, thinking this was just another one of their manipulation tactics and wanting to wish him to hell as I ended the call.
But I knew it was true. Beckham had told me time and time again that Gavin didn’t cherish me or appreciate me. Hearing he never loved me should’ve been no different. However, as tears gathered at the corner of my eye, I knew I still needed a bit more time to heal from it all.
“Rosenna?”I heard Brent mutter through the phone.
I cleared my throat as Beckham entered slowly. Dabbing away a tear, I spoke, annoyed at myself for even getting worked up over this.
“So my husband never loved me. He never did a lot of things. Is that all you wanted to tell me? Was your goal of ruining my day achieved?” I asked.
Beckham’s hand found the small of my back, and I felt an upswelling of comfort. His eyes held questions, but he said nothing as I placed the phone on speaker for him to hear.
“Garcia loves you,”Brent clarified, and I shook my head.
“Yet you and Gavin were keen on making me believe the opposite?”
“Because I was in denial that you’d met another man to put over me.”
“And now you’ve miraculously come to your senses?”
Brent sighed dejectedly.“No... Just doing myself a favor and facing reality... And you don’t deserve to face that miserable reality with Gavin and me. You deserve to be happy.”
I furrowed my eyebrows.
For all that Brent and Gavin had construed, hearing this come out of him was almost unbelievable. Almost like he wasn’t the one trying to convince me to forgive Gavin and his sins even though he wanted to publicly shame and punish me for mine.
“Brent, I—”
“Take a look at the files I sent over to your laptop,”he cut me off.
I sighed. “We know everything already. The PI dug back to the very beginning and gave everything to my attorney. It’s already being processed for the divorce.”
“Just... look.”
Beckham pulled away and scrolled through my laptop curiously, landing on an email that had my eyebrows furrowing. Brent remained quiet over the phone, and I was sure he knew I was going through his message. There had to be at least fifty attachments here. Scrolling through each briefly as I gazed at them, my eyes narrowed as my breathing increased.
“Brent, what the hell is this?”
