Serena

We finish our drinks at the bar and head up to the suite Keir reserved to speak in private. I take a seat on the far side of a herringbone-printed loveseat and cross my legs, tuning my full attention his way.

“All right,” I say. The cocktail I just enjoyed is sweeping through me, making everything warm and mellow despite tonight’s turn of events. “Tell me everything. And stay on that side of the room. I don’t think you’re capable of keeping your hands to yourself tonight.”

Keir mixes himself a Belvedere and soda from the mini bar and steps closer. He slips his suit jacket from his shoulders and takes a seat at a table-for-two a solid six feet away, never taking his eyes off me. The way he drinks me in makes me long for the days when we were happy, when our love was shiny and new, and when our futures were a delicious daydream we were quickly shaping into a reality.

“I’ve done many things I’m not proud of. I’ve never claimed to be perfect. I have a disgraceful number of regrets for a man my age.” Keir spins a crystal tumbler between his thumb and forefinger, glancing away for a second before returning his ocean blues my way. “But hurting you? That’s the biggest regret of them all.”

“If you’re trying to garner my sympathies, it isn’t working.” My words are dry and callous, and he deserves every one of them.

“Veronica approached me several months ago.” He clears his throat before taking a swig of his drink. “She asked me to meet her for dinner because she had a proposal she wanted to run by me. I assumed it had to do with the wedding, so like a dutiful future son-in-law, I agreed.”

He tucks his head, running his thumb along his brow bone.

“Instead,” he says. “Her proposal involved paying me to have sex with two of your friends and ensuring that you’d walk in on it.” He shakes his head, huffing. “Fifteen million dollars to buy my unfaithfulness.”

“Jesus, Keir. Why?” My lips tremble. The familiar ache in my chest is my heart breaking all over again. “You knew I had money. You were marrying me. You didn’t need the money. Christ, your family has money. Did I mean that little to you?”

“No, no.” His jaw tightens. “You meant the world to me, Serena. You still do.”

“I don’t understand why you’d agree to something like that, especially when you weren’t exactly hurting for money in the first place.”

“My family has money, sure, but I won’t see an ounce of it until they’re long gone, and let’s face it, Montgomerys tend to fucking live forever.” He sighs, as if it’s a bad thing. “And to be honest, I secretly resented that you were going to have to take care of us after we married. I wanted to bring something to the table. I didn’t want to be some pathetic leech.”

“What made you think we’d still be getting married after I walked in on you screwing two of my best friends?”

He shakes his head, tugging his lower lip between his teeth and releasing a defeated laugh. “That’s just it. I wasn’t thinking. I guess I was blinded by dollar signs because I truly believed you’d forgive me. I thought our love was powerful enough to get through this. I thought it’d be a small hiccup.”

I sulk. “A small hiccup. Are you kidding me?”

“I know. I was so transformed by her offer; I didn’t think it through. I just went for it. And you should know that Natasha and Tenley aren’t your friends, because they didn’t bat a lash when I presented the idea to them.”

I snort, picking at a thread in the arm of the loveseat.

Bitches.

Although, I guess I could say now that they did me a solid. I’d have been marrying a man stupid enough to claim he loved me and reckless enough to think I’d forgive his self-serving indiscretions.

I glance around the room, my eyes washing over the expensive lamps and the modern wallpaper, and none of it feels like home.

If I could be anywhere right now, I’d be lounging on Derek’s sofa, in his apartment, razzing him and pretending I wasn’t wildly attracted to him and two seconds from jumping his bones.

“Why would Veronica want to do this to me?” I look up at Keir, who’s despondently nursing his drink like he’s the victim.

“I don’t know, Serena. I think she just wanted to hurt you. To take the only thing you’ve ever loved. She wanted you to fall apart.” He blows a steady breath, looking back at me. “And that’s exactly what you did.”