Was she for real? “Do you seriously think I buy that horseshit?”
“W-what?”
“Seven days. Seven fucking days, Scarlett.”
She flinched when he spat the name as though it tasted spoiled on his tongue. That was exactly how it felt as it left his mouth.
Her head shook back and forth rapidly. “Wha—I don’t…what do you mean, seven d-days?” Her voice cracked and wobbled as if she were near tears.
The work of a skilled actress, no doubt. No how many tears came out of those lying eyes, he wouldn’t be swayed. He wouldn’t fall for her deceit again.
He was finished.
“You lasted a whole seven days after promising, fucking promising nothing could tempt you back to Hollywood.” He stepped closer, letting the fury flow through him. She didn’t recoil as his menacing height loomed over her, only tipped her head back and stared at him with a devastated gaze.
Another trick of the trade, no doubt.
“You laid right here, next to me in this godforsaken bed, and listened to me tell you I fucking believed you. And then seven days later, the spotlight called you back, and you went running like a whipped fucking dog.”
“No,” she choked out, reaching for him. Tears poured freely down her face now. Damn, the woman really had earned those Oscars she’d won. She was hands down the best actress he’d ever seen.
“No, Keith. That’s not true.” The words came out around a choked sob as he stepped away from her extended arms.
“No?” Christ, he sounded so bitter and hateful. Yet it was only a fraction of how vile he felt inside. “You know what, Scarlett? How about you quit lying to me? How about you look me in the eye and tell me the fucking truth?”
“Please…” she whispered. Her lip trembled.
“Do they teach that little trick in acting class or it is raw talent?” he asked as he flicked a finger over the quivering lip.
Unbelievable.
“Keith, it’s just me. I’m just me. Your Mickie.”
He scoffed. “Come on, tell me again how you don’t care about the spotlight anymore. How Hollywood burned you out until there was almost nothing left. How you’ll never, never be tempted to return? How you love it here in Vermont with my family and me. Tell me you’ve already had the role of a lifetime, and no movie part could ever lure you back.”
“Keith…” She reached for him.
“Tell me!” he shouted as he stepped back.
She wilted before his eyes, but he steeled his spine and fortified the fucking cage around his heart. No matter what it took, he’d keep her away from that damn organ.
“I-it’s the one role I’ve always wanted,” she whispered in a broken voice as she stared at the floor. “I can’t…I cannot let this one pass me by. I’m sorry.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said as he backed away.
“Keith, please!” she called out, sounding frantic now. “I’m not leaving for good. This is my home now. This movie is just a job, and I’ll be back when it’s over. This is where I live, where my life is. Where you are. Keith I lo—”
“Fuck, don’t.” His eyes fell closed as the jagged knife entered his heart with a slow stroke, twisting and gouging as it sank deep. So much for the cage. She managed to slide that shiv right between the steel bars. “Just don’t.”
She sagged as though crumbling under the weight of the world and even broken, his heart pulsed with the need to comfort her. She’d done something to him. Changed something deep within, and now he was nothing but collateral damage in her rise to the top.
“I’m sorry. I never meant—”
“I hope you have the decency to keep my siblings and I off your social media posts. I was prepared for someone to discover where and who you were at some point. I’ve been ready for headlines and to tell off nosy reporters, but that was when I stupidly thought we were in this together. The last thing we want is media vultures descending on us for no reason.”
She gasped then shook her head. “I would never. Keith, after everything, how can you think so little of me?” The pain in her voice mirrored that in his chest, but he shoved it aside. She didn’t get to be sad right now. She didn’t deserve his sympathy.
She’d done this.
She’d broken them.
Broken him.
And he wasn’t sure he could put the pieces back together the way they were before Michaela Hudson got a flat tire in the night.
He raised his palms as he walked backward. “I think that question answers itself. Goodbye, Scarlett. Hope Hollywood is worth it.”
With that, he turned and strode out of the room, down the stairs, and straight across the street, closing his ears to the sound of Mickie’s hysterical sobs. They’d come back to him later, in the dead of night while he slept in his bed all alone.