Theirs to keep

Everything

~ MIA ~

"Everything," I said. "Everything happened."

The word came out before I could stop it, raw and honest in a way I hadn't been with anyone in years. Maybe it was the whiskey. Maybe it was the exhaustion. Maybe it was the fact that these three men were looking at me like they actually cared, and I couldn't remember the last time anyone had looked at me like that.

Adrian's hands were still on my shoulders. His grip tightened slightly, like he was afraid I might fall apart if he let go.

"Come sit with us," Nate said. It wasn't a question. His voice was low and calm, the kind of voice that expected to be obeyed. He nodded toward a booth in the back corner, away from the bar, away from anyone who might overhear.

I should have said no, I should have made an excuse, finished my drink, and gone home to figure out my mess on my own. But the thought of going back to that house, back to Daniel, back to the silence and the humiliation and the weight of everything pressing down on my chest, made me want to scream.

So I grabbed my glass and followed them.

The booth was tucked into a corner, dim and private. Nate slid in first, then Cole. Adrian gestured for me to go next, and I ended up between him and the wall, which meant I was facing Nate and Cole directly. Their eyes were on me, steady and patient, waiting for me to talk.

A waitress appeared almost immediately. Nate ordered a round of drinks without asking what anyone wanted, and she disappeared just as quickly.

"Start from the beginning," Cole said. His voice was quieter than Nate's, but there was something sharp underneath it.

I took a breath. My hands were wrapped around my whiskey glass, the condensation cold against my palms.

"Daniel's been cheating on me," I said. "Again. This time it's been going on for a year. Her name is Vanessa. He told me about her tonight like he was giving me a weather report."

Adrian's jaw tightened. I could see the muscle flexing under his skin.

"Again?" Nate asked. His expression hadn't changed, but there was something dangerous in the way he said the word.

"This is the fourth time. That I know of." I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "The first time, he cried and begged me to forgive him. The second time, he promised it would never happen again. The third time, he told me it was my fault for working too much. This time, he didn't even bother pretending to be sorry."

The waitress came back with our drinks. She set them down and left without a word.

"Why are you still with him?" Cole asked.

It was a fair question. A reasonable question. The kind of question I had been asking myself for years without ever coming up with a good answer.

"Because I'm trapped," I said. "The company, the one I helped build from the ground up, is technically his. The board is loyal to him. I signed a prenup when I was twenty-two that protects his assets, not mine. If I leave, I walk away with nothing. No money, no job, no reputation. He made sure of that."

Nate's hand curled into a fist on the table. He didn't say anything, but I could see the tension running through his shoulders.

"So what did he say tonight?" Adrian asked. His voice was softer than the others, but there was an edge to it that I had never heard before. "When you confronted him about Vanessa."

I took a long drink of my whiskey. The burn helped. It gave me something to focus on besides the tightness in my chest.

"He gave me two options," I said. "Leave and lose everything, or stay married and pretend. Show up at events with him, smile for the cameras, play the part of the happy wife. In private, he said I could do whatever I wanted. He doesn't care anymore. He has Vanessa, and whoever else he feels like having. All he needs from me is the performance."

The silence that followed was heavy. I could feel all three of them processing what I had said, their expressions shifting from concern to something darker.

"He actually said that to you," Cole said. It wasn't a question.

"Word for word."

Adrian exhaled slowly, like he was trying to keep himself under control. "And you came here instead of going back to him."

"I couldn't be in that house," I said. "I couldn't breathe in there. I just needed to get out, clear my head, figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do now."

Nate leaned forward, his elbows on the table. His eyes were locked on mine, intense in a way that made my skin prickle.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. Nobody had asked me that. Not Daniel, not my parents, not anyone. Everyone always told me what I should do, what was practical, what made sense. Nobody ever asked what I actually wanted.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I've been so focused on surviving that I forgot to think about what I want."

Something shifted in Nate's expression. Something that looked almost like recognition, like he understood exactly what I meant.

"Then let's start there," he said. "Forget about Daniel. Forget about the company and the prenup and all the bullshit. If you could do anything right now, anything at all, what would it be?"

I thought about it. Really thought about it, for the first time in years.

"I want to stop feeling like this," I said quietly. "Small. Invisible. Like I'm just taking up space in my own life." I looked down at my drink. "I want to feel like myself again. I'm not even sure I remember who that is anymore."

Adrian reached over and put his hand on mine. His palm was warm, his fingers gentle as they curled around my wrist.

"I remember," he said. "You were funny. And stubborn as hell. You used to argue with Ryan about everything just to piss him off. You never let anyone push you around."

I felt something twist in my chest. A memory of who I used to be, before Daniel, before all of this. A girl who had opinions and dreams and a sharp tongue. A girl who wouldn't have put up with any of this for five minutes, let alone five years.

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"She's still in there," Adrian said. "She's just been buried under a lot of crap."

I laughed, a real laugh this time, surprised by how good it felt.

Cole signaled the waitress for another round. When she brought the drinks, he raised his glass.

"To digging her out," he said.

We drank. And then we kept drinking.

The conversation shifted after that. Lighter, easier. They told me about their lives, the businesses they had built, the years that had passed since I had last seen them. Nate had started a private security firm that handled protection for high-profile clients. Cole managed a hedge fund that specialized in high-risk investments. Adrian was a partner at an architecture firm, designing buildings I had probably walked past a hundred times without knowing they were his.

I told them about the early days of the company, before Daniel turned into whoever he was now. Back when we were partners, when we actually worked together, when I still believed we were building something meaningful.

The hours slipped by without me noticing. The bar emptied around us, and still we kept talking. I hadn't talked this much in years. I hadn't laughed this much in even longer.

At some point, Adrian's hand found its way to my knee under the table. I should have moved it. I should have said something. But his touch was warm and steady, and I didn't want him to stop.

Nate's eyes were on me from across the table. Dark and intense. He hadn't touched me, but I could feel his attention like a physical thing, heavy and deliberate.

Cole was quieter, watching everything with those sharp gray eyes. When our gazes met, he didn't look away and neither did I.

The air between us had shifted. I could feel it, this tension that hadn't been there before. Or maybe it had always been there, and I was just now letting myself notice.

"It's late," I said finally. My voice sounded strange to my own ears.

"It is," Nate agreed. He didn't move.

"I should probably go home."

"Probably." Adrian's hand slid a little higher on my thigh. "Do you want to?"

I should have said yes. I should have gotten up, thanked them for listening, and walked out of that bar alone.

But Daniel's voice was still in my head. Do whatever you want in private. I don't care anymore.

I looked at Adrian, then at Cole, then at Nate.

"No," I said. "I don't.”