Page 107 of Walkoff Wedding

I nod frantically. “Okay. Okay.” I realize I’m repeating it over and over incoherently, but all of this is too much for me to take in. I’m so angry… so hurt, that I feel like I could detonate. A ticking time bomb that’s finally reached the end of the fuse.

“Look, man,” Dixon grunts, attempting to rise off the ground, lifting on his hands and knees, but Grant plants his foot in the middle of his back and roughly pushes him back to the concrete, where he groans. Rolling to his side, he spits, and blood coats the pavement. “I didn’t do shit. It was all that asshole. I said this shit was too far, and I didn’t want anything to do with it. I’m not going to fucking jail. Especially not for him.”

His beady gaze shifts to my stepfather on the curb, and finally, Brent lifts his head, a deadly look in his dark, black eyes as he scoffs. “You’re a fucking pussy, Dixon. You realize that? Shut the fuck up, and don’t say another goddamn word.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather be a pussy than someone’s bitch in prison. I’m singing like a fucking canary if it keeps me out. All of this bullshit was you, and I’m not going down for you,” Dixon mutters as he clutches his side.

I knew it. In my heart, I knew that they were behind the break-in, but hearing him admit it?

It’s the moment that I feel myself break. Where I’m done holding back. I’m done letting myself be taken advantage of and hurt.

And for what? What reason could he have for doing this?

I whip around toward Brent, my voice so quiet it’s deadly. “Why? Why would you do this? What could you possibly have to gain from doing this?

Silence meets my question for only a second until Brent laughs without humor. “I hope the motherfucker burns to the ground and there’s nothing left but goddamn ashes.”

My stomach twists as bile rises in my throat. Grant lunges for him, but I reach out, grasping his arm tightly.

“You’re the most evil man I’ve ever known,” I say to Brent as the tears in my eyes fall harder, coating my cheeks. “Tell me why—I deserve that much. I deserve to know how you could do something so evil and cruel. Tell me.”

My voice cracks as Brent shakes his head. He peers up at me, hands cuffed tightly behind his back. “Because this piece-of-shit bakery was always supposed to be mine. I played the long game. I took your pathetic orphan ass in when you had no one else. This is the payment I fucking deserved, and you ruined it. You ruined it all. You stupid, naive little bitch. I was always going to take this place from you. You just made it inherently more difficult.” His voice shakes before he pauses. “If I can’t take it from you to sell the land—which is worth millions, by the way—then I’ll burn the thing to the fucking ground and get the insurance money. If I can’t have it, then neither can you.”

Anger courses through me in a powerful, all-consuming current. My fingernails cut into my palms as I fist my hands at my sides, making bloody half-moons in my skin.

“It was all about money to you, you greedy, selfish man. All this was was money. Your only motive was to line your pockets. All of this? Destroying the bakery, the one thing left of your wife, so you could cash in,” I nearly spit.

I feel Grant at my side, his arm looping around my waist and pulling my trembling frame against him. If I wasn’t so keyed up on my anger, I would probably collapse into him, but right now, all I can focus on is the man at my feet. The one who deserves every ounce of the anger, hurt, and pain I’m feeling right now.

Dixon may be an accomplice, but he’s a stupid one. I have no doubt that Brent was the mastermind behind all of this.

Brent’s eyes gleam with a chilling light as he chuckles. The sound is completely unnerving. “You have no fucking idea the lengths I would go to make sure the money was mine. I’ve been setting this up for years. Waiting for the day that I could make it happen. It was pure fucking luck that this dumb fuck and his father fell into my lap. Had he not turned out to be such a pussy and seen this shit through to the end like he was supposed to, I wouldn’t be sitting here in fucking handcuffs.”

The first police cruiser comes to a skid at the end of the street, signaling this nightmare is almost over, and I use the minutes, maybe seconds, I have left to get the only closure I think I’ll ever get from the man who’s done nothing but lie, manipulate, and hurt me my entire life.

He planted a seed long ago that had taken root, growing into something nefarious and destroying the things I love most, using the guise of what was best for me to deceive me and water his poisonous plan.

So, I keep my gaze trained on Brent as I lean into my husband, soaking in his quiet strength and fierce protection. He’s giving me this moment, even though I know that he probably wants to finish what he started, and I’m thankful that he understands me in a way that no one else does.

“You know, I feel sorry for you,” I say over the sound of the sirens and crackling fire. The bitter smoke makes my eyes sting and my nose burn as I suck in an unsteady breath. “I can’t imagine how truly miserable your life must have been. How pathetically miserable you must have been to let your entire life be ruined for greed. What about Tad? What about your son? Your own flesh and blood.”

“He’s a fucking adult, and he doesn’t need his daddy to hold his hand,” Brent scoffs, eyes bouncing between Grant and me. “Unlike you, he’ll graduate college and pass the bar, become an attorney that can actually support himself instead of some silly fucking dream to paint shit for a living.”

“Watch your fucking mouth.” Grant seethes next to me, his entire body coiled tight, ready to strike. “If it wasn’t for her, you’d be out on that fucking pavement.”

Bringing my hand to his stomach, I peer up at him and murmur, “It’s okay. He’s not worth it. He never was.”

He gives me a tight, slight nod and draws me tighter against his body.

In the span of seconds, red and blue lights bathe the parking lot, the sound of police sirens blaring so loudly that my ears sting with the proximity.

Dixon makes one last attempt to run for it, but Grant lunges for him, tossing him to the ground with so much force that I wince when his face hits the pavement with a sickening crunch.

“I truly hope that it was worth it,” I say, offering Brent one last look, one last moment of attention that he doesn’t even deserve. But it’s not for him—it’s for me. “If my mom were here right now, she’d be disgusted by the vile person that you are, but I’m just glad that she never had to see it. Goodbye, Brent.”

Everything happens so quickly after the moment that I walk away, tucked into Grant’s side, that I can hardly keep up.

I don’t look back.

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