Page 293 of Face Off

“I blocked her.”

Ryan studies him. “Everywhere?”

“Everywhere.”

“What about email?”

Briggs sighs. “Yes, Dad.”

“Venmo?”

“Why would she contact me through Venmo?”

“People become creative when they lose control.”

Aura points at Ryan with the antiseptic wipe. “Annoyingly valid.”

Briggs finally lifts his face. “Cade, I’m sorry.”

Cade’s brow furrows. “For what?”

“Lyric created a scene at your wedding celebration. Security had to remove her, I look like this, and your wedding pictures are going to have a groomsman who appears recently concussed.”

“You are recently concussed,” Easton says.

“It’s bruising.”

“It has its own weather system.”

Briggs looks toward Cade again. “If you and Bliss don’t want me standing up there—”

Cade’s chair slams backward when he stands. He crosses the space between them, catches Briggs by the back of the neck, and forces him to look up.

“Listen to me. Nobody is removing you from my wedding because someone you loved hurt you.”

Briggs’s face folds.

“You didn’t ruin anything,” Cade continues. “You walked a woman safely to her room, returned to your own, and ended a relationship when Lyric became violent. You don’t get punished for that.”

“I should’ve ended it before.”

“Yes.”

Briggs flinches.

Cade’s grip tightens. “I’m not going to lie because you’re hurting. You should’ve ended it a long time ago. We all watched her cut pieces from you while you kept calling it complicated.”

Ryan looks away, his jaw working.

“But you ended it last night,” Cade says. “Now you have to keep it ended.”

Briggs’s eyes fill. “I love her.”

“I know.”

“What if she needs me?”

Cade lowers himself into the chair across from him. “What if you need you?”