Page 104 of Ashes of Us
"Just stop." My voice came out harder than I meant it to. "Stop apologizing. Stop with the concerned routine. Stop acting like you don’t know what’s happening when we both know?—"
"I don't know." He looked genuinely confused, which somehow made it worse. "That's why I'm here. Because I don't understand what changed."
"What changed?" The laugh that escaped me was ugly. Bitter. "What changed is that I saw you."
"Saw me?"
"On your birthday." The words felt like they were being pulled out of me with fishhooks. "In the parking lot at the station. With her."
His face went blank. "With who?"
"Don't." I held up a hand. "Don't do that. Don't play dumb. The woman, Liam. The woman you were standing way too close to. The one who touched your arm. The one you were smiling at like—" My throat closed up. "The one who got you a gift."
Understanding started to dawn in his eyes, but I was already moving, already talking, months and months of carefully controlled pain spilling out all at once.
"I baked you a cake." My voice was shaking now. "I spent four hours making your favorite cake. I unblocked your number. I texted you happy birthday like some pathetic—" I pressed my palms against my eyes. "And the whole time you were already with someone else."
"Piper, that's not?—"
"Is this what you did with Jenna?" The question came out raw. "Kept me thinking everything was fine while you were seeing her? Coming home, kissing me goodnight, all while you were?—"
"No. God, no." He took a step toward me.
I stepped back. "How many this time? Just her? Or am I the idiot again, thinking I'm special when really I'm just convenient?"
"You're not?—"
"I almost let you kiss me!" The words came out too loud, echoing off the walls of my small apartment. "I stood there in my bakery and almost let you kiss me, and the whole time you were—what? Juggling? Keeping your options open? Making sure you had a backup plan in case I didn't work out?"
"Piper, stop." His voice was soft but firm, cutting through my spiral. "Just stop for a second and?—"
"No. You stop." Tears were streaming down my face and I didn't care anymore. Didn't care that I was falling apart in front of him, didn't care that I was proving exactly how much he could still hurt me. "You stop acting like you're the victim here. Like you're the one who got hurt. You cheated on me, Liam. For months. While I was planning our wedding. While I was picking out flowers and addressing invitations and being so stupidly, blindly happy."
"I know?—"
"And I forgave you!" The words ripped out of me. "Not out loud, not officially, but I did. I let you back in. I let myself believe that maybe you'd changed, that maybe we could—" My voice broke completely. "And you're doing it again. You're doing the exact same thing and I'm the idiot who didn't see it coming."
"I'm not." He moved toward me and this time I didn't step back because there was nowhere left to go. My back hit the counter and he stopped just short of touching me, his hands hovering near my arms like he was afraid I'd shatter. "Piper, I swear to God, I'm not seeing anyone. I'm not doing what you think I'm doing."
"Then who was she?" I looked up at him through tears. I sounded deranged, but I didn’t care. "Who was the woman in the parking lot?"
"That was Allison Jones.”
The name meant nothing to me. "Who?"
"From Channel 7. She's a journalist.” He was talking fast now, urgent. “She did a piece on the station a few months ago, and I looked up her number.” He hesitated. “I… I pitched a story about local businesses thriving despite big chain competition. About Rise & Shine specifically. About you."
I stared at him. My brain couldn't process the words in any order that made sense.
“She didn’t give me a gift,” he continued. “The bag you saw… I brought it for her. Samples from your bakery. Cinnamon rolls, croissants, and those lemon lavender cupcakes that—" He stopped. Reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Here. Look."
He held it out to me, hands shaking slightly.
I took it. The screen showed a text thread with a contact labeled “Allison Jones - Channel 7."
The most recent message was from yesterday:
Just tried the samples. AMAZING. My producer is 100% in. I need Piper's number ASAP so we can schedule the shoot!
