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As I get closer, I hear raised voices. They’re not shouting, and most people wouldn’t pick out the sounds amid the music and other people talking, but my familiarity with them causes them to pierce through the cacophony.

The woman’s malicious voice cracks through first.

“Nothing you ever do will be enough.”

Celine?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CULLEN

Fuck.

It’s the only word that comes to mind.

“Oh God, she didn’t see you, did she?” Bridget’s brows furrow slightly.

“What the hell is she doing here?”

She lets out a soft cluck before lacing her hand in mine and dragging me off to the side.

“Thisis why I said I was surprised you showed up here.”

“What do you mean?”

She lets go of my hand and places her hands on her hips. “Do you not pay attention to anything?”

“Bridget.”

“Her company designed all this.” She flourishes her hand around, almost whacking a server in the process.

“She runs a design agency, B, not an interior design firm.”

“The brand, Cullen. She designed the brand for Kelton Honors Club. Her logo was on the invitation.”

I whip out my phone and pull up the digital invite. I really hadn’t paid any attention to it since I initially had no intention of attending.

I zoom in, and sure enough, there at the very bottom among the sponsors is my ex’s logo.

“Mother fucker.”

I’ve known that our paths would cross eventually. There is no way I’d be able to move back to the city without running into her—that is the entire reason why I’d left in the first place—but that doesn’t mean Iwantedto run into the woman.

Fucking hell.

If she spots me, this entire night is going to go to shit.

I need to leave.

Some men might think it’s cowardly to run from their ex-wife, but that’s because their ex-wife isn’tmyex-wife. The woman harbors so much ill will toward me that Chloe and Bridget forced me to go see a Reiki healer to get an energy cleanse when we separated.

I’m not afraid of her, and I’m not mad at her, but I am sick of her. She’s been determined to hammer every single nail into my coffin ever since I uttered the word divorce and is an absolute nightmare. I admit that I made some mistakes, but I wasn’t the only one.

“Where is she now?”

Bridget pushes onto her tiptoes. “I don’t know. I lost her.”

“What? Keep looking.”