Madison huffed. “You’ve always been so ready to defend her. Perfect, genius Mollie could never do anything wrong in your eyes.”

A lightbulb clicked on. This was why Madison was trying to sink her fangs into him. Not because she wanted him, but because she didn’t want anyone else to have him, least of all her sister.

He gave her a slow smile. “That’s always bothered you, hasn’t it? My friendship with Mollie?”

“Well, I certainly didn’t expect that she’d be all buddy-buddy with your colleagues.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Jackson asked. “You don’t get to fucking divorce me and then pop up whenever you want, digging into my life. And for what it’s worth, Mollie’s never even met these guys.”

Madison folded her arms over her chest. “And yet they know her name. Which means that you must talk about her.”

“Yeah, I talk about her. In fact, I tried to set her up with one of them.”

Madison’s eyes went from annoyed to curious. “Mollie’s dating?”

“It didn’t work out,” he said gruffly.

“Oh. Well, no matter,” Madison said with a little wave of her hand. “I didn’t come to talk about Molls.”

Of course not. Your sister’s only as relevant as whatever she can do for you. “Maddie—” he began wearily, already regretting his decision to give her an opening.

“No, hear me out,” she said quietly, eyes pleading. “You don’t have to say a word. I just need to get this off my chest, okay?”

He grunted, not really sure if he was giving consent or not, but she took it as such and kept talking.

“I want you to give me another chance.”

He stared at her. “A chance for what?”

She licked her lips nervously. “A chance for us.”

Hell. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He’d known on some level that this was coming. But hearing it out loud he felt…nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Your new guy dump you?” he asked.

She ignored the question. “I love you, Jackson. I’ve always loved you. And you love me.”

“So far from it, Maddie.”

“I think you’re wrong,” she said quietly. “We’ve both made mistakes, but doesn’t every couple? Doesn’t every love story go through a rough patch?”

“A rough patch?” he asked incredulously. “You slept with my best friend and God knows how many others. Then when you got caught, you tried to dodge that scandal by making up a different one. You told the media I was the one having an affair. Dozens of them.”

“I didn’t—”

“Don’t,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “Don’t you dare lie to me about this. Everyone from your sister to my own mother thought I might have been having an affair. Do you have any idea what that does to a man?”

“But—”

He leaned forward, giving vent to some of his anger. “You wanted to talk, let’s talk. Here’s something I’ve always wanted to know: how is it that the very same women you named came forward and confessed to an affair? Women I’d never heard of, much less met. Much less fucked.”

She swallowed.

“Did you pay them, Maddie? Did you pay women to say they’d slept with me?”

She didn’t answer, but to her credit, she didn’t look away, and he knew he was right.

“Fuck,” he breathed slowly. On some level he’d always known that was how it had gone down. It was the only explanation. And yet having her all but confirm it…“You hate me that much?”

“No,” she said, scooting to the edge of her chair and putting her hand out toward him before letting it drop to her lap. “I made a mistake. A horrible mistake. And I am sorry, so sorry—you have no idea. But I panicked. You were pulling away, our marriage was falling apart.”

“I was pulling away?” he asked. “When? After I saw you sucking my best friend’s dick?”

She winced. “No, before that. You were always busy, and you only cared about football. And then you’d get home and be distracted. It got better for a while when I had the show—”

“God,” he muttered. “Not that fucking show.”

“That show was the only thing that made me happy!”

He stared at her. It shouldn’t hurt. It didn’t hurt. And yet…“Jesus, Mad.”

“You know what I mean,” she snapped. “At least then I could be someone other than Jackson Burke’s wife.”

“You were only on the show because you were Jackson Burke’s wife! The show was literally about being the wife of a famous athlete.”

“I didn’t come here to fight,” she said, pressing her lips together.

“I know. You came here to get me back, and I’m trying over and over to tell you that it’s not happening.”

She glanced down at her lap. “You’re not blameless in all of this, Jackson. The man that I agreed to marry—he was a football star, yes, but he was also my friend. He was a man as well as an athlete. But then you quit seeing me.”

Jackson itched to call bullshit. Madison had always been skilled at playing the victim card, and he was sick of it. And yet…

In this, at least, there was a sting of truth to her words.

He wasn’t taking blame for her actions. Not for the affairs or the lies or the way she’d served him papers while he was in the hospital. But Jackson was man enough to admit that she was right about him being self-absorbed toward the end.