"I'll ask Stacey to . . . to terminate it if that's what you want," he added, his voice trembling with desperation. "Okay?"
Lina laughed. A cold, humorless sound that startled even her. She shook her head and said nothing more.
She wanted to scream at him. Call him a cheater, a narcissist, a liar who couldn't take responsibility for his actions.
But she held back—not out of fear, but out of strategy. She wasn't going to waste her strength arguing with someone who clearly only loved her when it was convenient.
And Stacey . . . Stacey was another puzzle altogether.
Lina still couldn't figure out why the woman insisted on inserting herself into Christian's life so forcefully, even when she knew he had someone else.
She didn't just want him—she wanted to erase Lina completely. The messages, the photos, the veiled insults—it was strategy to get rid of her, as if Stacey needed Lina to break in order to feel victorious.
Why?
Was she that desperate?
