Page 38 of The Broken Keys

The elevator dings as it reaches our floor, where I’vespent countless evenings admiring her while she created magic. I’ve kissed her against these same walls, and I convinced myself that giving her space was the same thing as giving her love.

I exit, take a deep breath, and round the corner. And there they are.

Livianna is pressed against the wall near her office door, Cash’s hands framing her face as their lips meet in a kiss that looks like a homecoming.

The collision is immediate. Explosive. Every carefully prepared confession dies in my throat as Cash’s thumb traces her cheekbone with the respect I should’ve shown her before I left.

His whisper against her lips cuts through the air. “I love you.”

I suck in a gasp. He turns his head, and his eyes find mine at the end of the hallway before Livianna can respond.

Time stops with my heart. My feet cement to the floor, my chest tight with something that feels dangerously close to drowning.

He’s back.The thought crashes through me like a sledgehammer.Cash Mazye is back with Livianna.

I know exactly who her ex is now. Although it doesn’t appear he’s an ex anymore.

This is what happens when you wait too long to fight for what’s yours.

It’s now I realize the error of my ways.

He was the man who was supposed to be dead to her. The one whose label I helped fund through CrowneTheory Records without ever knowing I was financing the soundtrack to her heartbreak.

Cash smiles, his voice carrying down the hall. “Livianna, there’s the man who made our reunion possible.”

His tone is reverent, and I hate that I understand it. My jaw clenches and my fingers crush the rolled-up tabloid I’mclutching. The irony stabs deep and twists until I can’t breathe.

I didn’t just help create this moment. I backed his freedom from Leon Baker’s label and gave him the tools to become the man who could win her back. And I did it all without knowing I was destroying my own future.

Livianna turns to see me. Her eyes widen, and she lurches my way.

“Jax—” But she stops short, her gaze skittering away from mine like she can’t bear to look at me.

It’s like she knows exactly what I came here to tell her and she’s already made her choice. I’m frozen as I stare at the woman I was ready to burn the world for.

Cash pauses, studying her odd reaction, but she flashes him a bright grin and keeps her eyes trained on his face.

She’s chosen him.The truth spirals through my mind like poison.

“Jaxon made it possible.” Cash takes a few steps toward me, holding her hand, oblivious to the devastation radiating from me. “I met up with him and got him to back my business.”

I’m blindsided not just by the misery of witnessing them together, but by the worshipping tone in Cash’s voice when he adds, “This is the man who changed my life.”

I changed his life so he could reclaim mine.

Livianna glances between us, stunned. “When did that happen?”

“The same night I found you in my hotel suite in Paris.” His voice softens with the memory. “I met up with him before we shared that kiss.”

My eyes lock with Livianna’s. It’s a heavy, loaded gaze that’s like stepping on a landmine.

That same night, the night she barged into my penthouse demanding exclusivity and that our arrangement mean something more. The night she came to me after kissing him, and Iwas too blind to understand she was choosing me over the love of her life.

I always thought it was her brother who was causing her unease, but no, it was Cash.

How didn’t I see it? How did I not work that out?

Right after she shared that moment with him, I whisked her away to my vineyard and fell in love with her to the depths of my soul. The loss hits me like a freight train.