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to let it go so I can move on with my life.”
    He looked at her engagement ring. It was big, bright, and sparkly. It mocked him with its brilliance. It was three times the size of the engagement ring he’d been able to give her when he proposed. He’d promised one day to replace it with the ring she deserved. Apparently, some other guy had beaten him to it. “It looks like you’ve already moved on with your life.”
    Her eyes flashed with anger. “Don’t say it like that, like I don’t have the right to be happy.”
    He sighed, frustrated that everything he said incensed her. “Of course you deserve to be happy.”
    She scoffed, bitterness flashing in her eyes. “Just not with any other man, is that it?”
    He chuckled, in spite of his foul mood. “Hell no, I don’t even want to picture you with another man. It makes me crazy.”
    She gave him a half-smile. “You always were a jealous, possessive, overprotective jerk.”
    He shrugged his shoulders, unable to deny the claim. “I guess some things never change.”
    “How do you think I felt?”
    He frowned. “What do you mean?”
    She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the chair. “Seeing your face with countless women, each more beautiful than the last, splashed across the cover of every magazine in the country weeks after I left.” Her voice broke. “You said you were glad to be free. That you weren’t cut out for marriage.”
    He leaned forward in his seat, knowing how important this was. He had made so many mistakes. He couldn’t afford to screw this up. “I’m so sorry for the things I said back then. I was drunk every day for almost a year after you left. I couldn’t form a coherent thought. Every statement I made to the press was just the ramblings of a drunk, bitter man who was destroyed because the woman he loved more than life itself dumped his sorry ass.”
    She opened her eyes and smiled through her tears. “Thanks for saying that. I needed to hear it. I hated believing that our marriage meant so little to you.”
    “Our marriage meant everything to me,” he whispered.
    She brushed away the tears. “Then why didn’t you fight harder to try to save it? Why did you refuse to even acknowledge me after Callie’s death? God, Trey, I felt so alone.”
    He got up and moved to the edge of her chair, pulling her into his arms. He didn’t know if she would let him console her now, but he had to try. “I’m ashamed of the way I acted after Callie’s death. I hated myself and I just assumed you hated me too. It was my fault.”
    She leaned into him, resting her hand on his thigh. “No, it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident. You have to forgive yourself, or you’ll never be able to move on with your life.”
    He moved to sit on the coffee table in front of her. He needed to look into her eyes, try to read her reaction. “What if I don’t want to move on with my life?”
    “You have to move on. You have to get past all this anger and self-loathing, Trey. We both made mistakes. Maybe I should have stayed, tried harder, insisted we get counseling.”
    He grabbed her hand and he was relieved when she didn’t pull away. “Why didn’t you?”
    “I’d already lost you to the bottle. I didn’t know how to fight that. I just got so tired of trying.”
    She glanced at their joined hands before meeting his eyes. “You knew that my father was an alcoholic. I couldn’t go through that again.”
    “I know, Sierra. I’m so sorry. God, you deserved so much better than that.”
    “Now I’ve found it.”
    He hated that she’d moved on, found someone else, but he couldn’t begrudge her happiness.
    “I’m glad.”
    “You deserve to be happy too, Trey.”
    He rolled his eyes. He knew there were special places in Hell for self-centered, egotists like him.
    “You do, but you’ll never find it at the bottom of a bottle.”
    He got up and crossed the room. He was ashamed of himself, his weakness. “How did you know I was