My doorbell rings, but there’s no need to have false hope that it could be Wyatt. It’s not.
I open the door, and Jace is standing there, looking so much like his brother that I start to cry again.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he says as he steps inside and pulls me into a hug. “That’s not the kind of reception a guy wants when a beautiful woman sees him.”
“I’m not beautiful,” I mumble into his chest. “I’m a fucking mess.”
“Well, I didn’t want to say anything, but yes. You’re a mess.” He grips my shoulders and pushes me back so he can look at me. His handsome face folds into a frown. “Seriously, Lia, you don’t look good.”
“This is what agony looks like,” I inform him and walk away to sit on the couch. He follows and sits in a chair opposite me. “Have you talked to him?”
“A little,” he confirms, and I can see in his eyes that he’s not willing to say more.
“I know you’re loyal to him, Jace. And I don’t want to put you in the middle. I’m not asking you to deliver a message or anything like that.”
“I am loyal to him,” he confirms and leans forward, planting his elbows on his knees. “But you look like you could use a friend.”
I nod, unable to speak as tears clog my throat again. I reach for a tissue and rub my already raw eyes. “My heart hurts.” I cover my chest with my hand.
“I can’t fix this,” he says softly. “But do you want to talk?”
I nod again, but my throat is still closed. It seems all I can do is nod. “Give me a second.”
“I’m not in a hurry.”
I take a deep breath, blow my nose, and settle back on the couch, pulling my feet up under me. “I wasn’t looking for him. Or anyone, for that matter.”
I purge it all out. My separation from Vinnie, the divorce, my job, meeting Wyatt, and even most of our relationship. It all comes rushing out in a word vomit that I can’t seem to control. But Jace just sits back and listens intently, his eyes narrowing now and then, but there’s no judgment on his face as I tell him about falling in love with his brother and then receiving the letter a few days ago.
“We said horrible things,” I continue. “And I made him get out. But I honestly don’t think he would have listened to me in that moment anyway.”
“I agree,” he says but doesn’t elaborate. “Wow, you fucked up, Amelia.”
And queue the waterworks again. “I know it,” I say. “But I didn’t mean to. That’s the point of all of this. I don’t have a malicious bone in my damn body, and I certainly didn’t mean to mislead him. I was too busy falling in love with him, feeling good about myself when I was with him to worry about Vinnie and the divorce. It’s truly a technicality in my head. But Wyatt wouldn’t listen.”
“You know his past.”
I nod and wipe my nose. “I just thought we were past the baggage. But we’re not. And now he’s gone. He won’t talk to me, Jace. I’ve texted and called. I made a fool out of myself on his doorstep yesterday. And look at me.” I hold my arms out. “I’m a disaster.”
“You’re still a beautiful disaster,” he says with a small smile.
“You’re just being nice. Because you’re all so nice.” I crumple again. “Seriously, I have to pull it together. I leave for L.A. tomorrow. I still have to pack my shit and sit in mediation in a week. Do you have any advice? Without giving away any confidences?”
He sighs, runs his hand through his hair the way Wyatt does, and then looks me in the eyes. “Get divorced, Lia. Finalize it, and give it time.”
I shrug. “I’m not good at being patient.”
“Well, you’re going to have to be this time.”
“Do you think I have a chance with him?”
“I think that you’re both hurting, and some space will be good. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s the truth of it. Go to L.A. and get your affairs in order, then move on with your life.”
“With or without him,” I whisper. My eyes close, and tears escape down my cheeks. “I hope it’s not without him.”
“Either way, you’re going to be fine, Lia. I know that.”
I nod. “Thanks for coming by. You really did help. Maybe I just needed to talk about it all.”
“You’re welcome.”
He stands, and I walk him to the door. As we walk to his car, Wyatt walks out of his house across the street. My heart soars for a moment. God, even from far away he looks fantastic.
But when he sees us, he pauses and then laughs. There’s no humor in his face. He shakes his head and doesn’t say a word as he climbs into his car and drives away, not giving me another look.
“Fuck.” My eyes well with tears again, and Jace wraps his arm around me in comfort.
“Give him time,” he repeats and kisses the top of my head.
“This sucks,” I mutter a week later as Pam and I wait for the mediator to come back into the room. Having separate conference rooms for this was absolutely the way to go. I don’t want to see Vinnie.
I might deck him, and then he’d press charges, and I can’t live my life from jail.
“It’s not as bad as going back to court,” she reminds me and makes notes in a folder that she’s working on as we wait. Finally, after about thirty minutes, the mediator returns.
He’s a kind-looking, older man, who worked in family law for many years and does mediation now.
I like him.
“We have a counteroffer,” he says once he’s seated. “But first, I have to ask. Was he always so odd?”
“Yeah.” I swallow and push my hair off of my cheek. “He’s not good at this stuff.”
“No kidding. Okay, well, they’ve come back with this amount, paid in full.” He slides a piece of paper across the table, and I jerk my gaze back up to him in surprise.
“Tell me this is a joke.”
“No, it’s not. You don’t have to say yes. We can go back with another number.”
I stare at Pam. “I already paid him a fair amount when we got divorced the first time. This is ridiculous.”
“To be fair,” the mediator says, “in the state of California, he’s entitled to half of what you made when you were still together. The amount you paid him wasn’t half.”
“No, it wasn’t,” I agree. “Because he mocked me every day for my career. He hated it. He said my followers were stupid, and he didn’t even want to be on the bank account because he didn’t want to know anything about it.”
“Yeah, he’s claiming now that you hid money from him.”
“That cocksucker,” I mutter and stand to pace the room. “He was verbally abusive for years, told me to take my money and leave, and now he wants it. He doesn’t care about me. He never did.”
“You need to take your emotions out of this,” Pam says sternly, her eyes shrewd. “I get that he’s fucked you. I’ve seen it, too. But this is now a business transaction, Lia.”
I take a deep breath and sit at the table, listening.
“You can decline everything today,” she continues. “And then we’ll go back to court. That can take months. Maybe even a year. A judge will most likely award him half anyway because that’s the law in California. So, you can continue to pay legal fees and delay this further, or you can think like the businesswoman you are. We can end this. Today.” She folds her hands on her folder. “And I’d like to remind you that you’re about to launch a makeup brand. The money you’re about to start bringing in is so much bigger than this. Don’t ruin that for yourself. And don’t give him an opportunity to get his hands on a piece of that, as well.”