Page 154 of Broken Destiny

She was back in the city, and my stomach had hardened watching her standing with Harper in a deep conversation across the patio. They had looked too comfortable leaning toward each other, and I hated it because he was her ex.

The man she had loved before me.

The man who had cheated on her.

The same man Jiya and I had once fake-dated for so we could pretend to be a couple at his wedding.

I had been standing beside Tatiana at the party, trying to focus onthe conversation around me, but my attention kept drifting back to Jiya and Harper.

Every time she laughed, my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth.

I was going to marry a beautiful, successful woman. I was in a committed relationship—or at least, that was what I kept telling myself. So why did seeing Jiya with Harper bother me so much, even after everything I believed she had done?

Then Tatiana mentioned arranging a dinner with them the following Friday, and the idea made my skin prickle.

My gaze drifted back to Jiya just in time to see her hand resting on Harper’s chest while they laughed together.

A surge of heat rushed through me before I could stop it.

Let them get back together. Why should I care?

The memory faded as I continued driving.

What I had planned and what actually happened were two different things now.

I had hoped that while the children played with Geeta, Jiya and I might finally have a conversation—an honest one.

I needed to hear what she had to say to me. I needed to know if there was anything left between us worth salvaging… or if everything we had shared had truly been built on lies.

The ocean came into view.

Salty air filled my lungs as I parked the car and stepped out, watching the children bounce beside me.

Geeta laid out a blanket on the sand and sat down while I walked Emma and Lucas toward the water, their small hands gripping mine.

“Are you guys having fun in the city?” I asked, glancing down at them.

“Yes,” Lucas and Emma answered together, their faces bright.

“What have you been up to?”

“I met Quinn, and we played with her dolls,” Emma said, jumping into the shallow water. “She has so many dolls.”

“I played with Noah,” Lucas added, splashing beside her.

I nodded, watching them laugh, their joy so effortless that it made my chest ache.

“Have you guys been hanging around with anyone else?” I asked, feeling a tingle at the base of my neck.

“Harper joined us for dinner twice,” Lucas said. “He stayed over last night.”

Spots flickered in my vision, and pain crept into my jaw.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“He came over last night to talk to Mama,” Lucas explained. “And in the morning, when I woke up, he was there. He left, and then he came back just before you did.”

A pulse throbbed along the side of my neck, and I flexed my fingers, cracking my knuckles.