Page 16 of Shattered Dreams

Shannon's eyes widen. "So it wasn't guilt consuming him? It wasn't that he decided to come clean. You think it was damage control?"

"Yep."

"Jesus Christ, Ava." She shakes her head, jaw clenched. "Did he really think he could have an affair and it wouldn't come out? He's so fucking high-profile. What an idiot."

"He said she sold the story because he tried to end it." I swirl my wine, watching the liquid spin.

Shannon snorts. "He's a liar."

I nod, blinking back fresh tears as her hand squeezes my knee.

"I'm sorry," she says softly. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You're right though." I exhale shakily. "He's a liar. And I don't even know who he is anymore."

6

ROMAN

I've done it.

I've lost the only good thing to ever happen to me.

My family. My wife, my fucking angel.

It's been a week since I told her. A week of unanswered calls, of showing up at the door and being shut out.

Her family won't even let me past the fucking driveway of my own house.

Her face. That moment. Fuck. It was like I'd torn her heart out with my bare hands. I can't sleep or eat. Can't get to her.

I close my eyes as Axel continues, telling me how I need to go and see Ava, force her to listen to me. I don't have the energy to explain that if I went there again today, she would no doubt cut my balls off. I didn't doubt it—I've never seen her so angry.

"Dude, what the fuck? Can you at least explain to me why you felt the need to smash some random girl when you haveAva, man?"

I shoot him a dark look as he holds his hands up, shaking his head.

"I get it, Annie is hot?—"

"Because I was fucking stupid. Greedy. Ava and I..." I rub my neck as I speak, aware I already sound like a broken record. So far I'd had my agent on the phone, asking me how exactly I was going to recover from this, my parents—distraught and begging me to fix it—and I'd obviously faced the wrath of Scott, Ava's cousin, and her aunt. Not to mention her best friend, Axel's wife, Shannon. "We just hit a plateau."

Bullshit. Such fucking bullshit. There is no excuse. But she's still mine.

"A plateau," Axel echoes, staring at the screen in front of us in the hotel room I am in for the foreseeable future. "Muller, I was your best man at your wedding. I have never seen a couple more in love, more hot for each other..."

I close my eyes as I try not to think about that; what I'd lost.

What Ineedback.

"I'll give her some time, then I'll try and explain it to her." I sigh, as Axel shakes his head.

"You aren't expecting her tolisten, are you?" Axel's beginning to irritate me now, and I can't help but snap at him.

"I have no other choice! I didn't want her to find out at all—I wanted to end it when I realized what I had with Annie meant nothing. It isn't what I have with Ava."

Axel drops his gaze, and I know what he's thinking: I don't haveanythingwith Ava anymore.

I feel fucking sick to my stomach when I remember the look in her eyes, the sadness at what I'd done to her—to us—to us as a family.