Page 75 of The Score We Never Settled

“I’m trying to keep his blood pressure down and?—”

“I know you’re scared about his health,” he mutters. “I do. But that man is too damn stubborn to die, and he’ll want to give me a go when he finds out. He ain’t done yet.”

“I don’t want to risk that.”

“But you’re riskin’ us.”

I frown. “How? Are you going…” I can’t bring myself to say the rest of the words, but fear shadows over me, and I think this is the moment that Briggs has finally had enough.

That he’s going to leave me.

“To break up with you?” he finishes for me, and I immediately feel nauseous. I’m second-guessing everything that brought us here and how I could’ve done it differently. “I said I wanted you forever. I meant that.”

My lungs cast out a relieved exhale when Briggs leans in closer, seizing my next breath to induce and function.

“I’m not lettin’ you go, Layla Jean,” he promises. “And, at the end, it doesn’t matter what Weston says. Because I married you so he couldn’t have you, and that’s the end of it.”

I wish he had just stabbed me in the heart instead.

I feel my chin tremble as my legs unwrap around Briggs’s hips, and I push him away.

“Layla, I didn’t mean it like that—” He reaches for me, but I smack his hand away.

Everything feels instantly numb.

I can’t seem to draw in a steady breath, and my head spins with the last few years and what they were.

I married you so he couldn’t have you.

“Layla, don’t start gettin’ in your head about it. It’s not like that?—”

“Don’t,” I grit back because I don’t want to hear another word or excuse. I don’t want to think that all this was a complete waste of time.

“I married you because I wanted you. There’s no other?—”

“That’sbullshit, Briggs. All the complainin’ about him because you can’t tell him your little win is just eatin’ away at you. Well, go ahead. And you can tell him we’re done, too.”

I step around the edge of the alcove we’re in, and Briggs immediately clasps onto my arm.

“Layla Jean, you’re not leaving me pissed off. I’m sorry. It came out wrong.”

Pulling on my arm to no avail, I’m fully aware that Briggs’s defiant nature is never going to allow me to be alone by myself for a minute to think.

He’s going to cling, apologize, the whole nine, and that’s not what I need.

I need space.

So, I push back.

On the only thing I know will malfunction his senses for a moment to free me.

“It should’ve been Cruz,” I sneer, mustering up all my hurt to toss at him because it’s too much to bear alone. “Because it would’ve been easier and I wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble to see him. Besides, he’s cute enough to look at. I probably could’ve dealt with it.”

Briggs’s hold loosens, and I’m finally able to tear it fully away as I turn on my heels, tears immediately flooding my eyes because it was cruel.

In both ways.

And I have to be done.