Chapter 34
Adelaide
I don’t sleep at all that night.
My entire world has unraveled. The future I planned is gone, and I’m now going home to a life I’m choosing to leave behind.
I’m going home to a house I no longer wish to live in, a company I no longer accept being held back in, and a man I no longer want to marry.
Everything is going to change, but if I am going to have any chance at all of being happy, I have to start over.
Hailey, groggy and half-asleep, rolls over with a groan and checks her phone.
Despite my reassurances that it was fine for her to spend the night with Theo, she insisted on staying with me after yesterday’s revelation so that I wasn’t alone.
“What are you doing? We don’t need to leave for at least another hour. ”
“I’m going to meet you guys there,” I tell her, ripping my phone charger out of the wall socket and throwing it into my purse. “I need to bail Liam out first.”
Hailey is wide awake now. She abruptly sits up against the headboard of her bed, flicking on the bedside light and rubbing her eyes.
“Okay . . . Bail him out, then. Why do you need to be there when he gets out? It’s the middle of the night, Addy.
He can figure things out for himself. You don’t need to help him anymore. ”
“It’s important that I talk to him,” I say, clumsily zipping my suitcase shut and heading for the door. I stop when I get there, turning back to look at Hailey through the dim room. “I’ll be okay.”
“You’re sure?”
With a determined nod of my head, I smile tightly. “This is something that I need to do, and no one else can do it for me. Just trust me, okay?”
“I always trust you, Addy.”
With my suitcase rolling behind me and my purse slung over my shoulder, I stride down the long corridor to the elevators.
The hotel is quiet at this time, but not deserted.
The casino floor is still alive with jingles and flashing lights and late-night gamblers, and I take one last look around as I head for the ride-share pickup point.
Vegas didn’t pan out like I imagined, but I’ll give it one thing—it’s definitely been memorable.
As I wait for my Uber to arrive, I call the Clark County Detention Center. I pay the one thousand dollars for Liam’s bail out of our joint checking account, and then I throw my bags into the trunk of the Uber and slip into the back seat.
“Oh,” he says in surprise when my destination pops up on his phone screen, and he chuckles. “I thought you were headed for the airport. To jail it is.”
“Well, jail first,” I say with a smile in the rearview mirror at him, “and then the airport.”
The ride to the Clark County Detention Center feels familiar after last night.
It’s a fifteen-minute drive away in downtown Vegas, and the streetlights flash beams of orange light over my face as I gaze out of the window.
My entire body feels so heated with suspense, with nerves, with fear, with every single emotion Liam Hartman has ever made me feel over the course of our relationship.
When the Uber pulls up outside the jail, I step out and then poke my head back into the car. “I’m not sure how long this will take, but please wait for me. There’s fifty bucks in it for you.”
My driver is happy with that agreement. He turns on his hazard lights and slides his seat back, stretching out his legs to get comfortable as he settles in for the wait.
I leave my bags in the trunk and climb the jail steps.
The air is thick with heat and the sky’s a navy blue, a thin sliver of bold orange on the horizon.
It feels so quiet and eerie as I wait. I sit on the top step, mindlessly twisting my engagement ring around my finger.
Twenty minutes later, Liam emerges from the building.
He spots me instantly, and I rise to my feet as he desperately makes his way to me, face twisted with all of the stress of a man who has spent the night in a Las Vegas jail cell.
He’s wearing yesterday’s clothes; his shirt is creased and untucked, and there are stitches across the bridge of his nose.
The color of his skin is so pale, he looks broken down and sick.
“Adelaide,” Liam breathes, reaching out for me, “you’re here.”
I step back from his grasp, and I see the sting of rejection in his eyes. “I am not here because I forgive you,” I say, very clearly. “I am not here because I love you.”
“Addy . . .” he whispers, my name laced with hurt in his raspy voice.
“Please. Please, you have to forgive me. I know I haven’t treated you right.
I know things aren’t perfect, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
I want to marry you in six weeks.” He reaches for my hand, begging me to listen.
“I’ll go to therapy. Counseling. Anything.
I can’t . . . I can’t lose you. I’ll fucking spiral without you, Addy. ”
Part of me knows, deep down, that Liam means the words he says.
I believe maybe he really could change, and we could be the Adelaide and Liam we once were, but the damage is done.
The trust is broken beyond repair. How big of a fool would I be if I gave him another chance when I’ve already given him so many before?
Like Connor said—I need to have more respect for myself than this. I have to want more than this.
“Then spiral, Liam,” I tell him, gently easing my hand from his, “because the wedding is off.”
“No. You don’t mean that,” he croaks, shaking his head in wild disbelief. “We can push the wedding back, okay? We’ll delay it while we work on things. Fuck, let’s get married next year, even!”
“Please don’t beg. It’s pathetic,” I say pityingly, and Liam’s eyes widen, like he doesn’t recognize this woman standing her ground in front of him.
In what world does a woman call him pathetic and get away with it?
Apparently, a world in which Adelaide Sinclair wants more for herself.
“I called the airline,” I say, taking my phone out of my pocket and opening up my emails from our joint account—the account Liam insisted on in order to monitor my activity—and clear my throat as I angle my screen toward him.
“Your new flight is at noon. And you now fly into Orlando instead of Miami, so you’ll need to get a cab home from there. ”
Liam’s shoulders sink with defeat as he gapes at me, stunned. “You . . . You changed my flight?”
I tuck my phone back into my pocket. There’s a tenacity to my voice that even I don’t recognize in myself.
My mind is set, and I won’t let Liam’s apologies weaken my resolve.
My Uber driver is waiting for me—but not only as my ride to the airport, but as my witness.
“You should arrive home around seven hours after the rest of us do. That gives me seven hours to move all of my things out of our home. And I’m keeping the Volvo. ”
“Addy . . .” he chokes, a sob tearing through his throat. It breaks me, just a little, seeing the torment in his eyes, but I remain resilient.
“I’m going to the airport now,” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat, as I feel my own tears brimming.
But they’re not tears of regret. They’re of relief.
Before I turn my back on him, I slide my engagement ring off my finger.
I take one last look at it, and I think: I never fucking liked it, anyway.
And then I take Liam’s hand, place the ring in his palm, and curl his fingers into a fist around it. “Get home safe, Liam.”
I turn now, my head held high, and descend the steps toward the Uber.
I climb into the back seat and slam the door behind me.
As the car begins to roll down the street, I look back out of the rearview window, and there’s Liam Hartman, on his knees on the ground, watching me walk away from the sad life of misery he had to offer.