Page 60 of Shattered Dreams

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Ava doesn’t speak to me. I hear her voice through the walls, laughing softly on a call with Amanda, her voice more alive than it’s been in weeks. Poppy’s staying another night. Ava says she wants her kept out of the media storm that surrounds us.

I want to thank her for that, but I can’t bring myself to speak.

I sit at the kitchen table and stare at the papers again.

She really signed them.

I don’t know if she still loves me, or if she’s doing this to punish me, or if she’s really done.

What I do know is that I pushed her to this point.

I did this.

That evening,my phone buzzes. A notification from a gossip blog:

"NFL's Roman Muller seen assaulting top surgeon over wife—Inside the love triangle that ruined his career."

There are pictures of me and Ava in better days—red carpet events, vacation candids, her holding Poppy on her hip as I grin beside them like I actually deserved that kind of happiness.

Then the images shift to ones of me in bed with Annie. My stomach churns—what was I fucking thinking? Then images appear of last night. Me unhinged, grabbing Adam. Me throwing punches like some fucking boxer in a ring instead of on a street beside his wife.

I close the phone and toss it across the room. It cracks against the wall.

Good.

Let it shatter.

Everything is shattered, and it's all my fault.

I showerand get dressed like some kind of a robot. I stare at the folder again. My pen hovers over the signature line.

I can’t do it.

I stride to the door of her room and knock.

No answer.

I open it slowly.

She’s sitting on the edge of the bed, scrolling on her phone. She looks up, sees me, and her face hardens.

"What?"

"I won’t sign them."

"Roman—"

"Not yet. Not until I do what I said I would."

She laughs, bitter and tired. "What, fight every man I look at?"

"No," I say quietly. "Prove to you that I can lose everything and still want only you."

Her eyes narrow. "You already did lose everything. What’s left?"

"My love for you."

She says nothing.

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