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"I signed the extension an hour ago," Ethan continued, his dark eyes locking onto hers with a suffocating intensity. "I am staying in Chicago. I will be directly overseeing your agency’s work on this account for the next twelve months. Spending the weekend holed up in your office working on this proposal proved we still make an unparalleled team, Lily. We are going to be seeing a lot of each other."

The words hit Jason like a sledgehammer to the ribs, shattering the foundation he thought they had been building.

Spending the weekend holed up in your office.

While Jason was in Galena with his family, fielding excited questions about the amazing, brilliant woman he was dating, Lily was here. She had looked him right in the eye at the jazz club, pulling her hand away, claiming she was too busy to meet his parents. She had spun a beautiful, convincing lie to cover up the fact that she was spending her weekend locked in an office with her ex-fiancé.

Jason looked at Lily. She looked absolutely horrified by Ethan's announcement, yes. Her eyes were wide, her hands shaking at her sides. But as Jason studied the pale, terrified curve of her face, he saw the conflict. He saw the divided, tangled mess of emotions she was desperately trying to hide. She hated Ethan, but she was still chained to him. She was still a willing participant in his toxic game.

Lily took a staggering step back from Ethan and turned blindly toward the door.

She stopped dead.

Jason stood in the threshold, the delicate white peonies dangling from his loose grip.

The remaining color vanished from Lily’s face. Pure, unfiltered guilt screamed across her features, twisting her expression into one of absolute devastation. She realized, in that agonizing split second, exactly what he had heard.

"Jason," Lily gasped, her voice breaking into a desperate sob. She took a step toward him, her hands trembling violently.

Ethan turned around, his polished, aristocratic mask slipping effortlessly into place. He looked from Jason to Lily, his eyes gleaming with a victorious, calculated malice.

"Jason," Ethan said, his tone dripping with polite condescension. "Good to see you again. We were just celebrating. Lily and I practically lived in this office all weekend to get this over the finish line. It paid off."

Jason did not acknowledge the man. He refused to give the ghost the satisfaction of a reaction.

He kept his gaze entirely on Lily. The woman he loved. The woman who had let him drive out of the city alone so she could play house with the man who broke her.

"Jason, please," Lily begged, hot tears spilling over her lashes, leaving wet trails down her cheeks. "Let me explain."

Jason looked down at the bright, beautiful flowers in his hand. They felt ridiculous now. A naive, hopeful gesture for a future that did not actually exist.

"Explain what?" Jason asked, his voice a rough, fractured rasp. He didn't yell. He didn't cause a scene. The profound, hollow disappointment expanding in his chest left absolutely no room for anger. "Explain how you've been lying to me?"

"I didn't choose him!" Lily cried, stepping closer, desperately reaching out for his arm.

Jason stepped back, putting cold, unbridgeable distance between them. Her fingers grasped nothing but empty space.

"You hugged him back, Lily," Jason said, the betrayal carving out his heart with surgical precision. "You worked with him. You lied for him. You might be horrified that he is staying, but a part of you is still tied to him. And I told you, I will not compete in a triangle."

He stepped forward just enough to gently set the bouquet of white peonies on the edge of the mahogany boardroom table.

"I am not going to be your collateral damage," Jason said, his voice breaking on the last word.

He turned his back on her and walked out of the conference room. He ignored the sound of her tearful voice echoing down the corridor calling his name, keeping his eyes fixed dead ahead on the elevator doors, leaving the wreckage of their relationship behind.

***

Jason sat on the worn cushions of Dennis’s back porch, staring at the condensation sliding down the neck of his beer bottle. The twilight painted the Chicago skyline in bruised shades of purple and gray. He hadn't taken a single sip. His stomach was tied in a sickening knot that made the thought of alcohol nauseating.

Dennis dragged an aluminum chair across the wooden deck. The metal scraped harshly against the boards. He sat across from Jason, resting his forearms on his knees. Dennis had known Jason since their freshman year of high school. He was a friend who didn't push, a guy who just listened until the truth spilled out.

"So, she spent the weekend with the ex," Dennis stated, processing the agonizing story Jason had just unloaded.

"She looked right at me," Jason murmured, his voice fracturing. He scrubbed his calloused hands over his face, pressing his palms into his eyes. "We were sitting at the restaurant where we had our first date. I asked her to come to Galena. She told me she couldn't leave the office. She spun this perfect, flawless excuse about the Vanguard deadlines."

"And he was there the whole time," Dennis concluded.

"They worked together," Jason said, the betrayal burning his throat. "I stood in the doorway and watched them celebrate. She hugged him, Dennis. He put his arms around her, and she hugged him back. She let him touch her."