Chapter 21
Brent didn’t remember how he got there.
His legs were weak, still aching from the injuries Lucas’s men had inflicted on him, but the sight before him pushed all pain to the back of his mind. Layla–his Layla–stood in front of Zack beneath a canopy of lights, a soft breeze catching her hair. She looked like a dream he’d lost long ago and finally found too late.
He wasn’t supposed to be here. He should’ve turned around the moment he saw them smiling. But he couldn’t–not when she was about to say yes to someone else.
“I said don’t say yes,” Brent repeated, louder, stumbling forward as Zack turned with disbelief written across his face.
“What are you doing here?” Zack asked coldly, stepping protectively in front of Layla.
Brent’s eyes never left her. “I’m here… to stop this.““]
Zack scoffed. “You think you can just waltz in after everything you did and play the noble man now?“>
Layla hadn’t moved. Her expression was unreadable–cold, almost blank. She felt numb.
Brent’s voice cracked as he turned to her directly. “Layla… I know I’m the last person who deserves to ask for anything, but I’m begging you. Please… don’t marry him.”
Zack’s jaw tightened, fists clenched at his sides.
Brent dropped to his knees on the grass, unbothered by the sting in his joints, the fresh bruise pressing against the inside of his ribs. “I was blind. Obsessed. I let Celeste consume everything… and I hurt you. I hurt the woman I vowed to protect.“{
His voice broke.
“I can’t go back in time. I can’t erase it. But if there’s anything, anything–I can do to prove I’ve changed, I’ll do it. I’ll spend every day trying to make it right. Just… don’t leave me behind like this.“}
Layla inhaled sharply.
Images began to flash in her mind. Their wedding day. The way he’d kissed her hand under the veil. The mornings she’d wake up beside him before everything soured. The first time he called her his wife with pride.
But those memories were soon followed by others–shouting, loneliness, crying into cold pillows, the moment she found him tangled in Celeste’s arms. Her screams. Her heartbreak. The night she tried to walk away… and he didn’t stop her.”
Her fingers curled into her dress as tears stung her eyes, not from longing–but from mourning. She had once loved this man. She had once built her world around him. But he had shattered her, over and over, until there was nothing left but pain.
And now he was kneeling… too late.
“I’m sorry,” Brent whispered. “I’m so damn sorry, Layla.”
Zack remained still, watching it all unfold, jaw tense.
And then Brent did something Layla never expected–he reached into his coat and pulled out a velvet box of his own. Shaking, he opened it. A ring sat inside. Smaller than Zack’s. But it glimmered with something else–desperation, maybe. A symbol of regret.
“Let me marry you again,” Brent begged, eyes shining with tears. “Let me do it right this time. No more lies. No more Celeste. Just us. Please.”
For a moment, no one said a word.
And then–slowly–Layla stepped forward.”
Brent’s eyes lit with hope. But her gaze wasn’t for him.
It was on Zack.
With trembling hands, she turned and picked up the ring Zack had been holding earlier. Her fingers closed around it tightly, before she looked down at Brent.
“I would never,” she said, voice low but firm, “come back to the man who ruined me.“>
Brent’s breath hitched.
“This…” she held up Zack’s ring, “is my new beginning. You are my past, Brent. And this… this will be the last time we’ll ever see each other again.”
She knelt, not beside Brent–but beside Zack. Her hand slid into his, eyes locked with the only man who had shown her what real love could look like.
Brent didn’t cry right away.
He just stared–frozen–unable to process how fast his hope turned into devastation.”
Zack stood and pulled Layla up with him, wrapping an arm around her waist, protective, proud. Layla leaned against him, closing her eyes as a fresh tear rolled down her cheek–not of sadness, but relief.”
Brent’s knees finally gave out, and he collapsed onto the grass, silent.
And Layla??
She walked away with Zack.”
