Page 27 of Say it Ain’t So

For one horrible moment, I convinced myself it wasn’t okay.

I’d slipped out from under him, gathered my clothes and dressed. Then I took off my perfect diamond ring and left it where he’d see it.

It wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t the kind of person who married a man she’d just met. Who’d give up her entire life for a man who’d swept her off her feet.

You couldn’t take Vegas home with you. Isn’t that what they said? It had to stay out there in the desert. All the fun and dreams couldn’t come home with you.

Which meant I couldn’t keep Rylan.

“Is this because of Peter?”

“What?” I choked on a gasp as I tried to spit out the word and ended up coughing up a lung. I reached for my water bottle and chugged the last few ounces until there was nothing left. Then I asked in a shaky voice, “What do you mean?”

“Joslyn Michelle Ward, do not treat me like I’m an idiot.”

I cringed in my seat, as if she’d caught me in my lie when I hadn’t even told her.

Ward.

I’d lied to Rylan. I was so sure I’d never see him again that I gave him a fake last name. It had come to me as quick as the gust of wind at the Strat that had me feeling like Marilyn. By the time I’d agreed to marry him, I couldn’t find a way to tell him the truth.

“Are you even listening to me? Or is this your way of telling me you really do think I’m an idiot?”

I cringed again. Cheyenne may have been a tiny little thing, but when she used that voice, it never failed to make me think of those big, angry grandmas who ran a tight ship of their household and demanded truth and excellence.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot, Chey.”

“Well, you must! You’re sitting there trying to convince me that you don’t know why you left Rylan the Unicorn Dick when I can hear you shaking in your seat at the thought of what Peter will say when he finds out.”

That panic that gripped me earlier took a firm hold on my throat.

It wasn’t what Peter would say that I worried about. It was what he would do.

“Cheyenne.” I could barely squeeze her name through my throat and the tight sound only made it worse.

“Joss, babe, I love you, but I’ve gotta say it. I told you so. I told you to get away from that asshole. Peter is nothing but a piece of shit. He’s been preying off you for years, taking your hard-earned money and your good heart, and using it against you.”

“I know.”

“I know you know. But it bears repeating. Joss, he beats you. Do you not remember? Do you not remember the bruises you’ve been trying to hide for years? That asshole beats you. He turned my strong, beautiful friend into a shell of herself. He doesn’t deserve you, and you do deserve a magical unicorn who cares about you and takes care of you and makes you black out from the amazing orgasms.”

A burst of laughter shot through me, coming out on a cry.

No matter how much it hurt to hear it, Cheyenne was right. I’d left the best thing that ever happened to me because I was afraid of the man who had beat me into submission and made me believe what he’d taught me: that I was nothing.

I would always be nothing.

“What am I going to do?”

“Oh, sweetie.” What I wouldn’t have given to have my friend by my side at that moment. To have her wrap her arms around me and tell me it would be okay. “You know what you’re going to do? You’re going to do what we’ve been planning on for years. Remember?”

Nodding, I wiped the heel of my palm over my eyes. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to meet you at Peter’s place—because it’s not yours anymore, so don’t you dare try to tell me otherwise—and I’m going to help you get your shit. Then you’re going to come live with me until we can hunt down your unicorn⁠—”

“Chey—”

“And then you’ll ride his magical dick off into the sunset.”