Chapter 20

Ihadn't slept at all, and I lay in my bed, exhausted and feeling broken. Just twenty-four hours ago, I'd woken up in this same bed, excited about the future and happy to be giving things a try with Dash, but then Ethan had called and everything had changed.

As he had done so many times before, he'd managed to snatch away my happiness and switch off the sunshine I'd had in my life for that brief period of time when he hadn't been in it. The message that had popped up on my screen had been simple, short, and sweet, but coming from him, I'd known it spelled trouble.

Ethan: Take my call, baby. You'll regret it if you don't.

Suddenly as scared as if I'd never gotten away from him at all, I'd taken his damn call, only to be told that he was on his way to my apartment with big news. He'd wanted me to meet him here. Afraid of what would happen if I defied him, I'd come.

In the warm morning light creeping closer and closer to my bed, the nightmare that had ensued seemed so far away, yet it was real. Ethan was unhinged and apparently obsessed enough with me that he'd been willing to break the damn law to get some leverage.

I drew in a shuddering breath, trying to get my thoughts straight. Yesterday had been bad, but I had gotten away from him. We were divorced and now I just had to figure out how to rise to the challenge he'd presented me with.

It was not the worst I'd had to deal with from him and I would survive, just like I had before. All I needed to do was figure out how. For that, I needed help.

Not bothering to check any of the messages or missed calls sitting on my phone, I scrolled to Julie's number and Facetimed her. When she picked up, her eyes were still swollen with sleep and she was lying in her bed, shielding her face from the light as she squinted at me. "Serenity? What's wrong?"

"It's Ethan," I said, not even trying to beat around the bush. "He's blackmailing me. Or at least, he's trying to. At this point, I'm not really sure if he's succeeding. Everything has been happening so fast."

She blinked quickly a few times, clearing the sleep from her eyes, and bolted upright in bed. "What? How?"

My throat constricted, but I swallowed the tears, needing to get through this and desperately hoping she would be able to help me find a way out. "It was him on the phone yesterday."

"I figured," she said. "There's only one person who could make you look like you swallowed spoiled milk. What has he done this time?"

"He told me to meet him at my apartment, and when I got here, he told me that he knew Dash and I weren't just friends. He said he had pictures and that he knew we were fooling around, at the very least."

"Okay," she said slowly. "So what? What does he want? Why did he tell you all of this?"

"Well, he, uh, he wants me to let him come back and for us to try again, or he said he'd prove it that I'd lied to Eli and that Dash and I were a thing."

Julie scoffed. "Let him try. Where is he going to find pictures that don't exist?"

"Hang on a second." With my stomach roiling and feeling ice cold, I pulled the phone away from my ear and sent her the photographs he'd sent to me. "Check your phone. He had the camera in my hallway hacked, and in the stills, you can clearly see Dash and I kissing that night after our date."

"What?" She disappeared for a beat, and when she came back, she was fuming. "Are you kidding me? That's inside your building. Not to mention illegal. We cannot let him get away with this."

"I know. I'm furious, but you know him. There are enough people for him to hide behind that he could easily release these without being worried about ever getting caught."

"Fine," she hissed. "Let him release them, then. You have the right to be happy and to live your life, Serenity. If he wants to be a dick, let him."

"It's not me I'm worried about," I snapped, the emotion taking over. "It's the business, okay? If he releases those, all the respect I've gained so far goes out the window. My reputation as an event planner won't survive a hit like this just yet. Maybe if I had let the rumors be at first, but I didn't. I phoned Eli. I assured him Dash and I were just friends and he's never going to believe it was true when I said it."

She let out a heavy breath, her nostrils flaring and her cheeks flushed. "So do a press conference. Don't just roll over and be a victim. That's not who you are."

"I know." I squeezed my eyes shut. "Look, I have to go. I'll talk to you later."

Quickly ending the call, I felt awful for having acted the way I had. I didn't want to fight with Julie, but she just didn't understand right now. Trying to clear my mind before I attempted to come up with a solution that wouldn't destroy my professional reputation, I lay back down in bed and scrolled through my phone.

If I could just distract myself, something would come to me. Julie had been right about one thing, and it was that being a victim wasn't who I was. Not anymore. I would get through this, past it, and put it firmly behind me, but not while I was so angry that I was snapping at my best friend and unable to even really see straight.

As I scrolled, my stomach suddenly dropped and my heart started pounding in my chest. A headline jumped out at me. "Just Friends, Not a Rumor."

Underneath the title, there were pictures of Dash with various women, apparently having been taken last night. I recognized the club he'd been at, which meant that I knew it was the place to go when you wanted to be seen doing whatever you were doing.

In Dash's case, what he was doing wasn't exactly getting it on in public, but the poses they'd captured him in sure looked very friendly. Jealousy coursed through me before I could stop it, the green-eyed monster spitting acid in the pit of my stomach.

Wow. Two days ago, he'd been telling me that he wasn't a player and yet, just last night, he'd been pictured with at least half a dozen women. I blinked hard, even pinching myself in an attempt to figure out if perhaps all of this was just a nightmare, but nope.

Pain shot through me from my leg and I didn't wake up. Ethan's threats still hung over my head and evidence of Dash's promiscuity was still right in front of my eyes. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Sure, we hadn't discussed being exclusive, but I'd figured saying we wanted to try to be together implied that we would only be with one another.

Ha. He must've missed the memo.

As I was torturing myself by sliding my fingers across the screen, zooming in and trying to figure out whose hands were where, there was a loud, banging knock at my door. I jumped, my hand flying to my chest as I blinked myself out of my jealous stupor.

When another knock dropped against my door, my stomach twisted itself into knots, but I went to answer anyway. If it was Ethan, making him wait would only work him up, and if it wasn't him, I didn't really care who it was. I would invite a salesman in for coffee right now as long as it wasn't my fucking ex.

Carefully opening the door, I looked up. Relief and rage mingled inside when I saw that it was Dash. Those dark eyes were intent on mine, and he seemed upset. Without letting me speak, he took a step back, staying out in the hall as his eyes locked on mine.

"I ran into Ethan last night," he said. "He told me you guys were trying to work things out. I don't know when it happened or how, but I'm not getting involved in a marriage. I'm just not that guy. I'm here to let you know in person that I'm bowing out. Good luck with your marriage, Serenity."

"There is no marriage," I said firmly, narrowing my eyes at him. "Believe him if you want, but after I told the truth about who he was, I'd have thought you'd give me the benefit of the doubt. Ethan and I are over. We're not working things out, nor will we ever."

I didn't even bother bringing up the pictures I'd seen of him because, while I felt jealous, I knew how pictures could make things seem like a situation was different than it was. Dash scoffed at me. "We shouldn't be doing this. Obviously, he wants to work things out and I have no idea what's really going on between you two, but again, I'm not getting involved in a marriage. He was here last night. That much, I know for sure, so it doesn't seem to me like it's as over as you'd have me believe."

Giving me a curt nod, he spun on his heel and left. I wondered how on earth all this had happened. Things with Dash had been so up and down, so uncertain that I didn't know if we should be doing it either.

After a brief debate with myself, I let him go without a fight. Ultimately, we'd been on exactly one date and we'd slept together all of one time. Neither of those things equaled a relationship worth pursuing if he didn't trust me at all, and apparently, he didn't.

It seemed he still trusted Ethan's word over mine, and while that hurt after I'd opened up to him the way I had, I wouldn't chase after him to explain myself. Right now, I had more than enough on my plate.

A complicated relationship with a guy who seemed to be looking for any way to get out of it just wasn't something I had the energy for.

Even if that guy had made me feel things I'd never felt before and even if, for just a minute there, I'd thought that perhaps I'd finally found my happily ever after.