Jesus.
I clenched my jaw, dragging my gaze back up to her face.
“Talk.”
She shifted on one foot to the next, hugging the towel tighter around her.
“I came to apologize.”
Well, that wasn’t what I expected.
“What I said before…” She cleared her throat, her voice tighter now.“It was harsh, and I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
My expression didn’t change, but something in my chest shifted.
“And I’m sorry,” she added.
A beat passed.
Then another.
But she didn’t stop.
“I, uh, I was going to come see you the next day after the fight,” she rushed on, words picking up speed.“To apologize.Things were heated and I couldn't get past it then, but the next morning, my head was clear.I really was coming to you—well, to the studio.But then something happened, and it had me considering ending this before it got more complicated and—”
I straightened slightly.
“End it?”I cut in, brows pulling together.“If you came all this way to break up with me, Savannah, you could’ve sent a text.”
“I didn’t have my phone!”she snapped, frustration breaking through.“That’s kind of part of the problem.Lori took it.”
I stilled.
“What?”
She exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through her damp hair, careful not to move from the doormat.
“Lori showed up before I left.Jax, I spent all night looking for the phone and still couldn't find it, so I was beyond shocked when she showed up at my house with it—with my phone, and screenshots of the contract.And a very clear threat.”
Oh, fuck.
My mind immediately went to the pictures of the contract I sent her with the amendments for date nights.
“She wants me to end things with you,” Savannah said, her voice steadying just enough to get through it.“Publicly.Or she starts posting everything online and sending stuff to the press.”
“Everything?”I asked.
“The contract.The texts.Everything that proves this was fake.”She let out a humorless breath.
“And you’re just telling me this now?”
My phone buzzed in my pocket again, but I was too locked in to what she was saying.
“I needed time to think.A lot has happened in the last two days, and I had to figure out what I was going to do.I don't want any of her schemes to fall on you, and I thought breaking this off would be better.It would mean protecting you.But then I realized that ending things with you… doesn’t fix it.I'd constantly be under her thumb, and it would give her exactly what she wants,” she continued.“And I don’t… I don’t want that.”
There was something else there.
Underneath the words.
