Chapter 11
Once the crowd cleared out, Maeve tossed the battered bouquet aside and pulled the injured guy into her arms, her face full of worry.
“Jules, are you alright? Talk to me, please. Don’t freak me out.”
The crowd was stunned by what she was doing, and they instinctively looked toward Liam.
Liam clenched his bleeding hand, gritting his teeth as he watched the scene unfold, his whole body stiff with the heavy, suffocating tension.
Ivan Siegel couldn’t hold back his anger and started yelling, “Maeve, are you seriously a bitch? Llam does whatever you say and is all in for you, but your keep leading him on, and now you’re even hooking up with another guy! What do you take Liam for?”
Julian Hawke, the guy resting in Maeve’s arms, coughed and weakly assured her he was fine. Only then did she let out a sigh of relief.
She choked back the sobs and looked up at Ivan, her eyes full of hatred and resentment they’d never seen from her before.
“Me leading him on? Isn’t he the one who’s been after me, day in and day out, for ten years? He’s like a stray dog that I can’t get rid of!
“I’ve turned him down so many times, Can’t you see I don’t feel anything for him? Who I choose to be with is my business! Why do you all keep butting
Liam’s friends were pissed off by what she said. They would’ve gone after her right then and there if it weren’t for the fact that Liam was into her.
“You don’t feel anything for him? But you take all the expensive gifts he buys you. If you don’t care about him, why have him do all this stuff for you and make all those pointless promises? Maeve Stewart, you’re a fucking bitch!”
Maeve didn’t even flinch after getting torn into. Instead, Julian, still woozy from the beating, got pissed and tried to get back on his feet.
Maeve quickly stopped him and helped him into the car before turning to face the group she’d been dealing with for the past ten years. She flashed them. a cold, defiant smile.
“So what if I treat Liam like a dog? Is he really all that great? Didn’t he mess with other people’s feelings just to get what he wanted?
“Isn’t Stephanie, who got played for six years, the real victim? What about those girlfriends he swapped out every few days? We’re all the same!
“Before you start calling me a bitch, have you ever stopped to think that, compared to Liam, I’m a thousand times–hell, maybe even ten thousand times
kinder?
“Shut up! Everything he’s done has been for you! What the hell gives you the right to say that?
Maeve felt like she’d just heard the funniest thing ever and couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“You guys are putting this on me again? Did I tell him to date a hundred different girls? Did I make him chase after Stephanie? He says I’m the only one in his heart, but he’s always caught up with other women.
“I saw right through his flirty act and went along with it, but he took it seriously. It’s not that he’s actually doing what I said he’s just plain dumb!” Liam’s expression grew darker with every word Maeve said. He stared at her, realizing just how unfamiliar she seemed. That bright, playful side he remembered of her was nowhere to be found
The pain and despair Liam had been hiding started to show in his eyes. He had a million things he wanted to say, questions to ask, feelings to get out, but all of it vanished when her cruel laughter hit his ears.
Everything he’d worked for over the past ten years came crashing down in the blink of an eye.
