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“And before you tried to get me drunk and follow it up with a kiss?” I continue with my little tirade, delivering blow after blow of all the stunts he’s pulled over the years in an effort to follow my father’s instructions and win me over. “And when Jaxon got the job at the hardware store, and you complained he’d been abusive, and the manager let him go? We needed that job, Kevan.” I exhale.

“That wasn’t me!”

I glare back at him, and he winces. Then he holds his hands up.

“It wasn’t, I swear it.”

I shrug. “Whatever. What are you doing here?”

He glances away again before bringing his eyes back to mine. “I’m sorry.”

“About?”

“Everything. The past, the present, and more importantly, your future.” He holds the envelope up, and a feeling of dread sits in my stomach like a lead ball. “This is a contract that Reed signed with your father.”

My heart hammers precariously. “What contract?”

“He agreed to fight for custody of your son unless you signed the shares over to your father. That way, Reed can purchase the community center land.”

A crushing feeling takes over my lungs, filling my body with a poison that threatens to bring me to my knees. He wouldn’t, would he?

My throat becomes dry, and I tremble as I contemplate his words while I try to maintain the man I love would never do that to me, to our son. I shake my head and stare at the envelope. He wouldn’t use us as pawns in his quest for money, would he?

“It’s true, Gia. Look for yourself.”

“Why are you telling me this?” My voice crumbles as the words come out of my mouth like ash on my tongue. The bitter truth of Reed’s lies burning through me like gasoline.

“Because I want you to know his true intentions.”

“Why?” I snap, then wince at the cruel tone behind it, but I straighten my spine, determined to remain the strong, independent woman I became, yet feeling anything but. “So, you can step in and marry me? Take the shares from me too?” I shake my head, and tears stream down my face. Another broken home, another betrayal, all by the men meant to love me above and beyond anyone else. None of them can be trusted. Not a single one. “You’re power hungry and heartless. You cheat, steal, and prey on those who are vulnerable.” I stab my finger into his chest. “You’re cowards. You’re all goddamn cowards!” I scream as my hands ball into fists, and I hammer against his chest.

His arms band around me, and I sob against him. “I’m sorry,” he whispers brokenly. “I’m sorry.”

His words are my undoing and bring me back to my new reality. He’s sorry? Well, I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I ever met Reed Johnson and allowed him into our lives.

I step back with renewed vigor, and as I swipe the tears from my face, I stare Kevan in the face. “He can have the shares, but he’ll never see our son again.”

Kevan shakes his head. “That won’t be necessary.”

My eyebrows knit together.

“I came here to give you this.” He holds up the envelope, and I take it. “It’s a copy of the contract and a copy of the shares I own, signed over to Bryce from today.”

My eyes widen.

“It’s what I came to tell you. You have the power as Bryce’s guardian to have full control over the company. I don’t want to work with George Fanzio any longer. He’s gone too far, Gia. I’m only sorry it took until now for me to see it.”

Shock reels through me, a wave of emotions hitting me one after the other, but not a single one of them as powerful as knowing the man I love betrayed me and used our son as a bargaining tool to get what he wanted.

He’s not the man I thought him to be; that man doesn’t exist. He never did. I swipe at the lone tear trickling down my cheek. It was all a performance, a way to get what he wanted. He played me, played with all of us, and that thought sends a tremor of devastation through me. An animalistic sob rips from my chest, and I grip onto the living room chair to hold me up as the room spins.

Kevan steps forward, and I shake my head. “Can you leave now?” I whisper through racked sobs. Leave and never come back, I want to say, but I no longer have the power to utter a single word.

Kevan nods, then swallows thickly. “I’m sorry, Gia. Truly, I am.”

As he closes the door behind him, I sink to the floor and stare at the contract in my shaky hand.

How could he do this to us? He promised. My lip quivers as a deep-seated stabbing, like a knife is being twisted inside my chest, causes me to suck in sharp stuttered breaths, yet I still don’t feel like I’m breathing. One attempt after the other as a sickening wail lodges in my throat, and the feeling of it tightening has me clutching at it.