Page 57 of The Mood Board

When she had moved in with me, Bailey still had much of her lease left. I could have bought it out for her, but she had an old friend from high school looking for a temporary place, so she had sublet it to him. The friend, I knew, had moved out a month prior, leaving it empty for her to return to.

And when I knocked on the door, then knocked again, I was rewarded with the sound of movement inside.

Bailey’s eyes widened, her face paling when she opened the door and saw who was on the other side.

“Liam,” she stuttered.

“Bailey, I’m out. I’m free.” I stepped toward her, but Bailey didn’t move to embrace me or let me in, still staring at me in shock.

Then her eyes began to shimmer, and she rubbed hastily at them with the back of her hand, sniffing and drawing in an uneven breath.

“Bailey, please. I’m here, the case is over, and we can be together. I don’t know what happened, but let’s talk about it. We can work through it—we can work through anything, right? The two of us?”

She still had a hand over her eyes, the other on the knob of the door, her breathing uneven, and I took another step toward her.

“Bailey, please. I love you. I know we can work it out, whatever happened. I love you more than anything, and I’ll do anything to get you back.”

I held out my hand to her, but when Bailey finally looked up, all she did was stare at it.

“Bailey?” I asked.

Confused and hurt by her reaction, it took my brain a moment to register the sound of footfalls, growing louder as they grew closer—heavy footfalls. The door opened wide just as I looked up, revealing a man in dark jeans and a black T-shirt.

The man was instantly recognizable because I had looked him up. I wasn’t a physically violent person, but I had wanted to make sure I knew exactly who he was so that if I ever ran into him, I would know to punch him in the nose for hurting Bailey as he had.

Except he was standing in Bailey’s apartment. And as I watched, he curled an arm around her waist and pulled her back into him, his gaze never leaving mine, a vicious smirk growing on his face. Bailey said nothing but jerked at his touch and curled into herself, looking uncomfortable even though their position hinted at intimacy. She kept her gaze downcast, unable to look me in the eyes.

“Who’s this?” Russ asked, but he knew exactly who I was. And he was enjoying every second of this standoff.

“Liam, you have to leave.” Bailey’s voice was small.

“Bailey, please.” I tore my attention from Russ with difficulty. My rarely used baser instincts were coming to the surface, and something was yelling at me in the back of my mind to launch myself at him, but it was settling for staring him down instead. “Let’s talk about this. You can’t just leave like this—”

“I think Bailey told you exactly what you can do, and it’s not talking.” Russ’s voice was smooth, his teeth too white in his triumphantly wicked grin.

Bailey put a hand on his arm, a silent request to let her talk, and it was then that I realized her engagement ring wasn’t on her finger anymore.

“Liam, please leave. I was very clear about what I wanted and where we stand.” She finally met my gaze, pulling her shoulders back as her chin tilted up.

“How can you do this?” The words sounded ragged to my ears, but getting them past the thickness in my throat was difficult. “How can you throw away everything we had for—for this?”

The gesture I threw at Russ was neither polite nor subtle, but Russ’s grin only grew. He knew he had won. How I didn’t know, but he had won.

Bailey squared off, one hand on the door. “Liam, I’m not going to tell you again. You need to leave—goodbye.”

“Bailey—” I started, moved to step forward, and met the door as she shut it in my face.

And then I was standing in the hallway alone.

Entirely alone.