“I said . . .” Charles began when Brody’s deep voice whispered, “You are engaged.”
I shook my head, even though he wasn’t looking at me as his mocking tone pierced my chest.
“We’ve gone through all this . . . all this shit, and I almost lost you because I was married. And you’ve been engaged the entire goddamn time?!” He looked up at me, and his face was twisted in anger, but his eyes couldn’t hide the deep ache he was trying so hard to mask.
“So now your boyfriend’s married?” Charles asked. “This just keeps getting better.”
“I’m not,” I choked out, ignoring Charles. “I left before he ever asked, I swear to you, Brody.”
He laughed hard once and threw an arm out between Charles and me. “How am I supposed to believe you? I knew you wanted to forget where you were from, but I thought—God, I don’t even know what I thought anymore. But I knew you would tell me when the time was right. I just had no f**king clue that you were Kamryn f**king Cunningham. That you were some privileged girl who wanted to see what normal people lived like. That you were this princess”—he sneered the word—“who I’d grown up constantly hearing about from Liv. Her parents’ goal in life was to be your family. Olivia’s dream was to be you! They are the way they are because of your family, Kamryn, don’t you get that? My wife was a nightmare because of you!”
A sob tore from my chest, and I had to grab the counter so I wouldn’t fall to the floor. The entire time my head was shaking back and forth. His words were killing me. I was nothing like Olivia, and I’d had no part in making her the way she was. Part of me knew Brody was just hurt, but it didn’t change the way each word he said felt like another punch to the chest.
“I was never enough for Olivia. I was never enough for her parents. But it didn’t matter, because I didn’t love her.” His anger quickly faded, and grief replaced his hardened features. “I can’t go from one Olivia to the next, Kamryn. I can’t handle not being enough for you. When you realize you’re done playing this game and you’re done with me and want to go back to your old life, I won’t be able to handle that.”
“I won’t!” I cried out. “I won’t! I know you’re hurt, and you have every right to be. I should have told you from the beginning, I know that. But I’m nothing like her, and you know it. This”—I gestured to my bakery—“us, our condo . . . all of it is me. I left because I was suffocating with those people, Brody!”
Brody shook his head and laughed sadly. “I can’t give you anything like he can.” He gestured to Charles. “That ring? That is who you are, and I can’t give that to you.”
“At least he understands,” Charles mumbled.
“I don’t. Want. The f**king. Ring!” I screamed. Grabbing the box, I snapped it closed and threw it at Charles’s chest. “I don’t need some massive diamond. Give me a band and I’ll be happy. Jesus Christ, Brody, just give me your last name and I’ll be happy,” I cried. “I don’t need or want any of what Charles or my parents have to offer.”
“Yeah, you might say that until you realize everything I can’t give you.” Brody turned toward the door, and my body locked up in panic.
I couldn’t let him leave. I couldn’t lose him.
“I only stayed as long as I did because I was saving money so I could leave. I only stayed with Charles as long as I did because my parents didn’t give me a choice. But the minute I heard him talking with my dad about asking me to marry him that night, I left. I was gone within the hour. And it was the best moment of my life!”
“This is ridiculous. Kamryn, let’s go,” Charles said with a sigh, and the highest, most unattractive screech left me.
“Leave! I swear to God if you aren’t gone in the next minute I will call the cops!”
Brody kept pacing near the door, his hands running over his face and through his hair. I took slow steps around the counter as I continued talking to him, my voice rising as hard sobs threatened to choke me.
“I’m sorry you associate my name with your ex-wife and her family, and yes, my parents are probably just as bad as Olivia’s, if not worse. But I am nothing like them. I hated everything about my life. It was all mapped out and scripted for me, I didn’t have a say in any of it. It was a prison.”
Brody scoffed.
“Don’t do that!” I exclaimed. “Don’t act like I’m some spoiled brat who had everything, and still it wasn’t enough. I never wanted any of it.” Charles grabbed my wrist when I went past him, and I shoved at him. “Get off me and leave!”
Brody turned, his eyes narrowed on Charles. With quick steps, he was in front of Charles and me and pulling him away by the front of his shirt. “She told you to get out. I suggest you do it before I arrest you or get myself arrested for showing you exactly what I f**king think about you.”
“Don’t touch me. Kamryn, you have until tomorrow to change your mind!” Charles yelled as Brody shoved him out the door and locked it behind him.
“You have to understand, Brody, and I know you do,” I continued when he didn’t turn to look back at me. “I was miserable with them, and all my daydreams consisted of getting away from that life and those people. Think about it. Think about how miserable you were with Olivia, how miserable her family is. Being married to her was your own form of a prison sentence!” Brody’s body tensed, and I prayed I was getting through to him. “Right? You felt trapped. You felt like you couldn’t breathe. But you didn’t have a choice for a long time. Well, I didn’t have a choice either!”