That's not me being controlling. That's you breaking trust." Her lips curled into a mocking smile. "It was just a kiss, Ryan. Evan and I are friends.
Sometimes friends kiss. It's European." Ryan blinked slowly. "European?" "Yes.
He's European." Ryan's voice was steady, almost cold. "Evan's not European." "Well, the concept is European," she stumbled. "You're so American about everything.
So possessive. That's why I needed space." Ryan's jaw tightened. "So you're saying this has happened before?" Her face flickered with panic.
"What? No. Just that once." "But if it's so innocent and normal," Ryan pressed, "why wouldn't it have happened before?" Madison faltered.
Her voice grew louder, angrier, hoping volume would bury the cracks. "You just don't get it. Can we move past this already? It meant nothing." "Then show me your phone," Ryan said suddenly.
She froze. "Excuse me?" "If it meant nothing, if Evan's just a friend, show me your messages with him." "That's an invasion of privacy," she snapped. "So is lying about where you are," Ryan said evenly.
Madison hesitated, then unlocked her phone. Right in front of him, she scrolled quickly and deleted something before tossing it across the table. "See? Nothing." Ryan stared at her.
"You just deleted your conversation with him." "It wasn't important." "Then why delete it?" She snatched her phone back. "Because you twist everything into something it's not."
Ryan stood. His voice was cold steel. "Madison, I need you to leave. We're over." Her mouth dropped.
"Over a kiss? Are you serious?" "Over the lies, the gaslighting, and whatever else you're hiding." "I'm not hiding anything!" she screamed. "You know what?
Fine. When you realize how stupid you're being, don't come crawling back. Evan actually appreciates me." Ryan's chest burned, but his face never cracked. "I thought he was just a friend."
She froze, glared, and stormed out. The silence after the door slammed felt different this time. It wasn't emptiness. It was clarity. Ryan sat at his desk, pulled up their shared phone bill online, and scrolled.
He saw it immediately. One number over and over, hundreds of texts a day, late night calls, long conversations stretching until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. A reverse lookup confirmed it. Evan Simmons. But Ryan needed more than numbers.
He needed proof that could crush every excuse, every lie. So he reached out to someone who might know, his friend Claire, who worked at the same medical center as Madison, though in a different department. Claire was blunt, the kind of woman who didn't sugarcoat. "Evan Simmons?" Claire said over the phone, her voice tinged with hesitation.
"What?" "Just curious," Ryan lied. "Madison mentioned him." "Mentioned him? Ryan, they're always together.
Lunch breaks, coffee runs. Honestly, people talk. Everyone assumes they're, you know." Ryan's throat tightened. "Assumes they're what?"