Page 71 of Runaway Bride's Guide to Love

Because, you know, he’s the one who should be angry because none of this was his fault.

Oh wait…

“You look well,” he says, unbuttoning his suit jacket before sitting down across from me.

“You look like a lying asshole. Or an uncircumcised penis. Can’t decide which.”

“Oh Stella,” he says with extra slime in his voice. “Do we need to be like that?”

“Why? Is this causing you more emotional damage? You going to up the damages? Because I’ll take back the penis dig. But youarea liar, and I’ll scream that until I’m blue in the face.”

“Stella, baby…come on now.”

“Don’t baby me, Duncan Hughes.” My voice is growing louder. Judging by the eyeballs trying not to stare into here, they can hear me. I couldn’t give two shits. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to see if you’d have dinner with me tonight.”

I think my eyes jump out of my head. “Dinner? With you? For what, Duncan? What possible reason would I have to go to dinner with you?”

Is he serious? He can’t be. He’s either dumb or delusional if he thinks I’m going anywhere with him.

Oh, who am I kidding? He’s both.

“To talk. About us. We need to put all this behind us so we can make up and start fresh.”

I let out a laugh so loud even the people who aren’t trying to eavesdrop heard us. I know because a group of heads all popped up from their cubicles at the same time.

“There are only a few things to talk about. One is when I’m going to be paid back for your shady business dealings. Second,to schedule when I can come to the condo to get my things. Neither of those are getting back together, and it never will be. Going forward, when we have any conversations that aren’t pertaining to business at the office, it will be with my father next to me as my lawyer. And I’ll want Simon there simply so I can watch you piss yourself when he just stares at you for hours, thinking about how many people he’ll need to call in to hide your body.”

He tries to hide the gulp he swallows, but he can’t. The man is scared shitless of my brother.

“Stella, come on,” he says. Is he asking again? Does he not understand the word no? “You had your time away. I let you take the time you needed. You got to lay on the beach and get everything out of your system. It’s now time to get everything figured out.”

The fucking audacity of this man. He’sactuallyserious. I know because he’s leaning forward, his head tilted like he’s trying to show that he cares, while holding out his hand for me. I can now see clearly all of the times he did this to manipulate his way out of a fight, or to get his way.

Not anymore.

“You want me—the woman you lied to, stole from, and cheated on, on the day of our wedding, mind you—to just brush it all way because you asked me nicely? Because you think some time on the beach washed away all my issues, so now I can forgive you?”

Holy shit. His eyes say it all—that’s exactly what he thinks.

“Well yeah. Don’t you forgive me?”

“No the fuck I don’t!” I yell as I pop up from my chair. This is no longer a sitting conversation. “And even if I did, which Ineverwould, you spent the last two weeks telling everyone here that I’m a bitch and you’re suing me. Why would I get back together with you when you have an actual lawsuit out against me?”

Judging by his reaction he didn’t realize I knew that. Did hethink my family wouldn’t tell me? With every conversation I have with him, the more I realize that he’s a fucking idiot.

“Who told you about the lawsuit? Andi?”

“Yes, Andi. And my sister. And my father. You know, my lawyer? Who you served papers to. How would you think I wouldn’t know?”

“The suit was just something I did out of anger,” he says with a mock apologetic tone. “I’ll drop it right now if you’ll just have dinner with me. Talk this out. Give me another chance.”

I almost—almost—start to give in. Not fully, but I feel myself begin to say, “Fine, I’ll have dinner.” Because that’s what old Stella would’ve done. She would’ve given in because she didn’t want to fight.

That was the old me. The new me isn’t putting up with this shit.

No, I’m Stella 2.0. A little crazy, a little bold, and knows what she fucking wants. In the past two weeks since I figured out who Duncan was, I’ve also figured out who I am.

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