Page 16 of Ashes of Us
"I'm ready now, Liam. I'm ready to cancel it."
"Don't say that." His voice cracked. "Don't say that. We've been together six years. Six years, Piper. That has to mean something."
"It did mean something. It meant everything." My voice was shaking now, but not from sadness. From rage. "Until you decided it didn't."
"That's not fair.”
"Fair?" I stepped forward, and he actually moved back. "You want to talk about fair? You had your tongue down another woman's throat at the station. You've been lying to me for four months. Four months, Liam. While I planned our wedding. While I stayed up late baking cupcakes for you to taste. While I addressed invitations and picked out flowers and talked to your mother about the rehearsal dinner. You were fucking someone else."
"I wasn’t thinking… I never meant for it to?—"
"Don't." I held up a hand. "Don't you dare try to minimize this. I saw you. I saw her legs wrapped around you. I saw exactly what you were about to do."
His face went white. "Piper…"
"And now you're here, with her perfume still on you, telling me we can fix this?" I laughed, and it sounded unhinged even to my own ears. "You can't even go twelve hours without seeing her."
"Nothing happened. I swear to God, nothing happened. I told her to leave and?—”
"I don't care." And I realized, saying it out loud, that I meant it. "I don't care what happened or didn't happen with her this morning. You already destroyed this. You destroyed us."
"We can fix it," he said again, desperately. "Piper, please. Think about the wedding. Think about everyone who's coming. My parents, your parents… they've spent so much money. We can't just?—"
I stepped forward and jabbed my finger into his chest.
"I don't give two fucks about the wedding, Liam."
He opened his mouth but I kept going, punctuating each sentence with another poke to his sternum.
"I don't care about the deposits or the guests or what your mother thinks or how much money anyone spent. I cared about YOU." My voice cracked but I didn't stop. "I cared about our future. About building a life together. About Sunday mornings and stupid arguments about whose turn it was to do the dishes and growing old and all the little things I thought we'd have."
"We can still have that.”
"No, we can't. Because YOU wrecked it." Another jab. "You threw it all away for four months of sneaking around with her. So if you think, if you actually think, that I'm going to save this wedding just to spare you the embarrassment?" I shook my head. "You're out of your goddamn mind."
"Piper—"
"I am MORE than happy to burn this whole thing down myself."
"You're being unreasonable." His voice was rising now. "You need to calm down and think about?—"
"Calm down?" I laughed again. "You cheated on me and you're telling me to calm down?"
"I'm trying to fix this and you won't even listen to?—“
"We're done, Liam."
"No." He shook his head, desperate. "I'm not giving up on us.”
"That's not your choice anymore," I said, and my voice was steady. Cold. "The wedding's off. We're off. I don't want to see you.”
"That's bullshit," he said, louder now. "You don't get to make that decision on your own.”
"Okay, that's enough." Maya appeared behind me, her voice sharp. She stepped around me, putting herself partially between us. "Time to go."
"This is between me and Piper," Liam said.
"And I'm telling you to leave."
