Page 62 of Sweet Redemption

Hurt. Pain. Heartache. It all fucking sucks, and I refuse to give it power over me.

Not now. Not again. “You made your choice, and it wasn’t me.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Serena? You said no.”

And there it is.

The thing he’ll never get over.

I said no.

It doesn’t matter what my reasons were.

It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t listening.

It doesn’t matter how badly I wish I could have said yes.

I said no.

“Fuck you, Hendrix.” Tears burn the backs of my eyes. Tears I refuse to let fall as I take one step closer, then another until I’m so close, I can taste the sweet red wine on his breath.

I have no doubt he can feel every shake of my body as I vibrate with anger and hurt. “I said no . . . and you married someone else,” I whisper, the first heated sob tearing from the darkest depths of my fucking soul. “You had a baby,” I cry, the crack in my heart splitting wide open until it’s a chasm. “With someone else.”

My chest hurts. My heart hurts. My head hurts.

“You had a baby . . . Less than a year after I said no, you had a baby.”

It’s agony. This . . . This is agony.

I tuck my hair behind my ears, not bothering to wipe the falling tears.

Let him see them.

Let him see the pain.

Let him fucking feel it.

“You fell in love with someone else. You did. You broke your promise. We broke us. But you . . . you broke me.” I take one last impossible step closer, without even knowing why. “I don’t deny you your happiness. You’re a good man, Hendrix. You deserve to be happy. Britt deserved to be happy. And I’m so sorry you lost her. I’m so sorry you have to figure out how to live in this world without her. I’m sorry your son has to. I never would have wished that on you or her or him. But don’t act like you’re not the one who moved on first⁠—”

He erases any distance left between us, his body pressing so closely to mine, the heat bleeds through his suit and my dress, trapping the air in my lungs without ever laying a finger on my body. “I didn’t.”

His voice is firm and calm, two things I absolutely do not feel at the moment.

Especially now as confusion fogs my brain.

“What?” My head swims, and the world around me tilts on its axis, the starry night sky suddenly blurring above me.

Hendrix raises his hands like he’s coddling a wounded animal, which is exactly what I am. A wounded fucking animal balancing on the edge of a sword.

Tip it one way, and I run away.

Tip it the other, and I might just claw his eyes out.

“I don’t understand,” I finally snap, keeping my balance as I choose my next move.

“I never fell in love with someone else, Serena.” Hesitantly, his thumbs trace the curve of my cheek, and I close my eyes, unable to focus on the intimate gesture. “Fuck. It would have been so much easier if I had.”

“Don’t rewrite history, Hendrix,” I plead, my hands trembling, unsure whether I can take this new unimaginable version. “You married her. She had your baby. She was your best friend, and then she was your wife. That doesn’t happen without love.”