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Unknown Number:

I miss you. I thought you might have seen these by now. But maybe not. Monroe said your dad’s not letting anyone but him see you. So, chances are you hate me.

Maybe you have seen these…

Unknown Number:

I’ll never stop cheering for you, even if I have to do it from afar.

Unknown Number:

Stupid prepaid phone is out of money or whatever after this. That’s probably my sign to let you go anyway.

I love you.

I sat there dumbfounded. Nowhere in any of the messages did she say it was her, but I knew it was. “Why…I don’t understand.”

“She’s not here, and she’s not texting you from her phone, because your dad cornered her in the hospital when you were in surgery. Traded her and told her to leave—no contact. She told him to shove it up his ass, so he threatened to trade me and Jimenez if she didn’t take the trade,” Monroe said, sounding more pissed off than I’d ever heard before.

My head snapped toward him, my pulse racing. “What?”

“Gracie told me.” Monroe shook his head. “Fucking flew back here just to get me the truth before your dad talked to me. She heard the whole thing, and that girl’s got a fucking impeccable talent for remembering every detail of a conversation.” He let out what was as close to a chuckle as he got. “According to her, your dad manipulated Ari. Same fucking way he’s done to you since he slithered into your life like the snake he is.” He turned away, shaking his head. “I warned her, too, warned her he’d punish her for turning him down back at your apartment. He used her love for you to back her into a corner.”

I stared at him, the weight of his words sinking in. “What the hell are you talking about? What happened outside my apartment?” My mind was running a million miles an hour, trying to piece together what he was saying.

He pulled out his phone, slapping it on the hospital tray and pressed play. My father’s voice sounded through the speaker.

“We don’t have to have the same arrangement as Emma and me. Though I’m not opposed. I know you’re ambitious, Ariella. I have connections my son doesn’t have. I can make all of your dreams come true. You don’t even have to work hard to reach those milestones. I can just place you there, so long as you help keep Dalton where I want.”

I was so in shock with what I was hearing, learning how he’d made arrangements with my ex and hearing him proposition Ari, that I almost missed when it changed to her voice.

“Dalton is a grown man, Mr. Langley. He doesn’t need anyone else’s approval to make his decisions. Not mine and definitely not yours. He deserves to have people around him who care about what he wants, who do things with his best interests in mind. Clearly, you’re not one of them, but I am.”

“She chose you. And not just the night of your accident, Dalton. She’s been choosing you from the start, giving you the same love and support that, according to her cousin, she never thought she could have. And she offered it to you because you gave it to her first,” Monroe said, his tone softening. “You’ve been so busy trying to keep a toxic man in your life, you can’t see the people who actually love you.”

I looked away, his words cutting deeper than I wanted to admit. “He’s done a lot for me. Brought you both on when I asked.”

Monroe shook his head, his voice steady. “You think giving me a job, or Jimenez a chance, makes him a good person? We could’ve done all of that without him. And so could you.”

Swallowing hard, the truth in his words settled like a stone in my chest, along with the rage at fully wrapping my head about what he’d done, and what he’d tried to do, to Ari. I looked up at Josh. “What do I do?”

“You fight for her,” he said simply. “You stop living for what your dad wants and start living for what you want.”

I closed my eyes, exhaling shakily. He was right. I’d spent the last few years trying to gain my father’s approval, but I was never enough. And I never would be, not for him.

I’d let my father manipulate me for too long, and I wasn’t going to let him take her away from me too. Ari was worth more than that.

She was worth everything.

“I’m done,” I said quietly, but with resolve. “I’m done with him.”

Josh clapped a hand on my shoulder, and I winced. “About damn time.”

My chest ached, but this time it wasn’t from the injury. It was from the hope surging through me. I wasn’t letting Ari go—not without a fight.

FORTY-NINE

ARIELLA