Page 113 of Breakaway Bet

Cash: Deal, motherfucker.

“Deal?” I read, gripping West’s phone so tightly in my hand that my fingers are turning white. Tears fill my eyes as this feeling of dread starts to travel up my spine. “This was all some bet?”

“No!” Cash says, panic in his voice. “Didn’t you hear what I just said to him? I told him to delete it.”

“Oh, that makes it better?” I ask sarcastically, my voice a little loud and a bit hysterical as humiliation and betrayal plow into me at once.

He never loved me. This was all just some bet, and then he needed to stay in it because of his stupid fucking endorsements.

The party has somehow gone silent, with just the music playing too loudly in the background now that the voices have ceased. I feel all the eyes in the room focused on us.

As humiliation wraps its tentacles around me, I find myself stuck in place, not sure what to do.

But I know I can’t stay married to someone who did this as a fucking bet. It was one thing when I believed it was a drunken mistake that we made and decided to stick out together. But now that I know money was involved?

It changes everything.

He made a hundred thousand dollars by getting me to marry him, and then he used me because it put him in a shitty position with his sponsors.

He didn’t show up to Ever-Brand because he was interested in me. He showed up because he wanted to win a bet. Always a competitor.

I spin on my heel and run out of the kitchen and toward the stairs. I stop at the bar on my way, and I take one of the bottles of Nocturno that’s half-empty now.

I pick it up and slam it against the other bottles, knocking them over, and then I smash it against the quartz countertop so it shatters. Tequila and glass spray everywhere, and I toss the neck of the bottle still in my hand on top of the mess before I run up the stairs and to the bedroom I’ve been sharing with this fucking liar, the tears starting to rush down my cheeks as the truth hits me with brute force.

Everything I believed—everything I felt—for the last couple months has been a complete and total lie.

CHAPTER 38: Cash Maddox

Shattered

I stand stunned as she runs upstairs after smashing every bottle of Nocturno we had.

I know I need to run after her.

I know I need to fix this.

I just don’t know how.

“Fuck,” West mutters.

I glance at him, and the glance deepens to a glare. Somehow I knew he’d fuck up the most important relationship I’ve ever had.

The room is quiet as all eyes are on me.

I think about asking everyone to leave. I have no clue what everyone heard or didn’t hear, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that my heart is currently upstairs, shattered over my betrayal just like those bottles of tequila.

I need to get up there. I need to explain this.

I rush past everyone, not really caring what they think or what they do, if they stay or if they go.

I leap up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and I find Ivy in the bedroom, throwing clothes into a suitcase. She already changed out of the dress and into a pair of black leggings with an oversized sweater on top. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and tears streak her beautiful face.

I walk over toward her and attempt to pull her into my arms, but she’s not having it.

“I’m sorry, Ivy. It’s not what it looks like,” I say quietly.

“I want a divorce,” she says, her voice flat, no emotion in it.