He ignores my question. But he stops pacing and snaps his gaze back to mine. There’s something desperate in his eyes. “We can fix this,” he says, stepping closer. “There’s still time, Kylie. You can get a divorce. An annulment. Whatever. We’ll pretend this never happened. Go back to how things were before.”
I shoot him an incredulous glare. “How things were before? You mean me desperately trying to be the perfect girlfriend while you were fooling around behind my back?”
His jaw tightens, but he forces a smile. “I’ll make it up to you. We’ll take a trip—just the two of us. Anywhere you want. I’ll buy you something nice, whatever you want.”
I let out a bitter laugh, shaking my head. “You really don’t get it, do you? I never cared about that stuff, Alex. The trips, the gifts… none of it mattered. I wanted you. I wanted to be good enough. I wanted to be happy.”
He looks momentarily taken aback, then tries a different angle. “Fine,” he says, his voice growing more urgent. “Forget the trips and the gifts. Let’s go to the hospital right now. I’ll take care of your mom’s medical bills. Everything. That will make you happy right? You won’t have to worry about it ever again.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. The truth behind his offer settles in, and it feels like my heart is breaking all over again.
I swallow hard, forcing myself to look him in the eye. “If you really cared about my mom, Alex, you would’ve done that a long time ago. Not as some last-ditch effort to win me back. This isn’t about my mom. This is about you trying to control me, and I’m done letting you.”
His expression shifts into something cold. “You think Benedict’s any different? You think he’s some kind of savior? He’s worse than me, Kylie. And you’ll figure that out soon enough.”