Chapter 7
TESSA
Istared at him, waiting for some hint that he understood the absurdity of what he’d just asked me. But Gage only looked stunned, as if my reply made zero sense.
He actually had the nerve to look blindsided after how he destroyed me three years ago.
Fury surged through my veins, burning even hotter than it had back then. “Are you actually kidding me right now?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Which was good because I was nowhere close to being done yet.
“You’re the one who burned us to the ground! You broke up with me over voicemail, for fuck’s sake.”
I wasn’t one to swear, but I had a feeling that wasn’t why he looked so surprised. That only made me even more angry.
Stabbing a finger toward him, I continued, “Then you announced your engagement only minutes later. Which was fan-fucking-tastic timing on your part because it ended up that I found out you were marrying Vanessa before I even got that message.”
His lips parted again, but I wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say for himself now that I was getting it all out.
“As if that wasn’t bad enough, the texts I tried to send you while I raced home after sobbing in my car were never shown as read.
My calls went straight to voicemail. And when I finally stumbled into my apartment, the first thing I saw was a box of my stuff and the key I gave you, sitting on my kitchen counter. ”
I finally stopped, my chest heaving as I wondered why he looked like this was all stuff he hadn’t known.
“None of this makes any sense.” He scrubbed his palms down his face.
“I got a text from you, then all of my replies were never marked as read. My calls went directly to your voicemail, too. And I never packed up your stuff. When I got home from the office later that evening, my key to your place was gone, your things were cleared out, and a box of my shit was sitting on the entryway table.”
For a moment, I thought he was lying. But when the confusion shifted to dawning dread, I realized he genuinely believed what he was saying. Even though it was the exact opposite of what I lived through.
“You’re right about one thing, your story doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s not a story, and I can prove it.” He yanked his phone from the inner pocket of his suit jacket. Then he scrolled through his messages and thrust the screen toward me. “Here. Look.”
He’d scrolled up through the string of blue bubbles too quickly for me to read any of them, but the one supposedly from me was enough to make my stomach drop.
Tessa
No explanation needed. I was planning to end things soon anyway. Will drop off your stuff when I grab mine. Don’t worry about the key, changing the lock.
I stared at the words, my pulse thundering in my ears as I whispered, “I didn’t send this.”
Gage didn’t accuse me of lying. He just gaped at me with an unfocused gaze, his brows drawing together.
“And I can prove it, too.” I dug my cell out of my apron pocket and pulled up our old conversation thread with trembling fingers. “Mine doesn’t have that message. Everything after our texts that morning about dinner are my messages that never flipped to read.”
He took the phone from me, his gaze darting between my screen and his. “What the fuck? How is this possible?”
“I don’t know.” My voice sounded as shaky as I felt. “But something’s very wrong.”
“Damn right, it is. I spent all this time thinking you walked away from me without giving me the chance to explain my plan.”
Although I was curious what he meant by that, his explanation had to wait because a possibility occurred to me. “Pull up my contact information.”
He tapped on my photo icon at the top of the screen, then clicked on the info button. I gasped when I saw the number listed. It was close. Off by only a few digits.
I couldn’t wrap my head around how it had happened, but there was no denying what my eyes were seeing. “That’s not my phone number.”
Gage’s voice was dazed, as though he was piecing things together as he spoke. “Someone must have changed your contact details on my phone.”
My gut tightened, and my mouth went dry. “Who would even do something like that?”
“I can only think of one person who had motive and access.” He heaved a deep sigh. “Vanessa.”
Although his answer made sense when it came to his phone, my mind latched onto the other sabotage that had been done. “But it wasn’t just the calls and texts. What about the boxed-up stuff? The key to my place? Who walked into my apartment and removed any sign you’d been there?”
Gage’s nostrils flared. His movements were jerky as he handed my cell back to me. “Vanessa was with me at the office for the announcement, so the timing doesn’t line up. It couldn’t have been her, which means she must’ve had help.”
Another wave of dread crashed over me. This one was worse because someone had been in my home while they’d carried out a plan meant to destroy us.
I recoiled before I could stop myself, clutching my phone like it was the only solid thing left in the room, grateful that nobody except Gage was here to witness my horror.
Only an hour ago, I would’ve been appalled by the thought of him seeing me vulnerable like this.
But he was the only person who could possibly understand a fraction of what I was feeling because he’d been impacted by what had happened too.
Except he was the one who’d put us in the position to be betrayed in the first place. Knowing someone interfered didn’t erase the three years I lived believing he’d cut me out of his life. He put Langford Tech ahead of our relationship, and I paid a hefty price for that decision.
I stepped around the counter, putting physical space between us before I did something reckless while I tried to make sense of all this. “Even if someone else made us each believe the other walked away, that wouldn’t have been possible if you hadn’t gotten engaged to Vanessa.”
He flinched and raked his fingers through his hair. “I never planned to go through with it, though. Her father came to me. He said he needed to step down as CEO because of health issues he was hiding from the board. But for the transition to work, Langford Tech needed stability. A unified front.”
I stared at him, wrapping my arms around my stomach. I was finally getting his side of what happened three years ago, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
“Rupert insisted the only thing that made sense was announcing a merger of our families. Something that signaled to the market how solid and mature I was, even at thirty-four. He felt like the future of the company depended on it. He looked like he was about to keel over any minute, and I didn’t want to add any stress that might send him to the hospital. So I agreed, but I—”
I cut him off before he could rationalize his mistakes.
“Whatever you had planned to get out of marrying her doesn’t matter.
You didn’t take the time to talk to me before you let them announce your engagement as though I wasn’t a part of your life.
We’ll never know if you could’ve gotten me to agree to go along with the charade because I didn’t factor into the decision at all. ”
His shoulders slumped, but I couldn’t let myself soften. Not when I could still picture him smiling in engagement photos with another woman while my world collapsed. The humiliation hadn’t faded. Whatever truths we uncovered today, the hurt didn’t vanish.
Those emotional scars were still mine.
“I’m sorry.” Gage’s green eyes burned into mine. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
I let out a slow breath, my heart feeling like it was breaking all over again. “You might not have meant it, but that’s exactly what happened. And unlike you, I didn’t have a wedding to plan or my parents to lean on while I was suffering.”
His face crumpled, but I refused to feel guilty for telling the truth. “It wasn’t like that.”
I couldn’t let him rewrite the past just because the present had blindsided us both.
I forced my voice to stay steady even though I wanted to cry. “This doesn’t change anything. You still chose her.”
“It had nothing to do with choosing Vanessa over you,” he insisted. “I had no interest in her.”
I hated the idea of him in bed with another woman. No matter who she was or how much time had passed. But I couldn’t let what he just said go unchallenged.
“No interest,” I echoed, my eyes narrowing. “Are you honestly going to stand here and tell me you married Vanessa but never slept with her? Have you been celibate the whole time we’ve been apart?”
“I wish I could say I had been.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “I’m sure it’s no comfort to you, but I didn’t touch her until our wedding six months later. And even then, that part of our marriage didn’t last long. I hadn’t been with her for a long time before I filed for divorce.”
My stomach twisted, and I hated that his confession caused any reaction in me besides indifference. It wasn’t fair that he still had the power to hurt me after all this time. “You’re right, it doesn’t help.”
Although I did find the timing ironic. It sounded like his celibacy started around the same time mine ended.
But I wasn’t about to share that bit of information with him.
He didn’t deserve to know that I’d spent a full year unable to picture myself kissing another guy, let alone actually sleeping with them.
If I hadn’t become friends with Jace while getting the bakery ready to open, Gage probably would’ve still been the last man I slept with.
Gage took a half step toward me but froze when I lifted a hand to ward him off. “I can’t do any more of this right now.”
We stared at each other across the counter. His eyes were stripped of every defense he usually hid behind. “I’ll give you space. But I’m not done trying to fix what I broke.”
I hated that I wanted to believe him.