The Coldest Man in the Room Melted Only for Me novel Chapter 57

"I'm saying her situation was merely the breaking point."

His supposed honesty did absolutely nothing to extinguish her fury.

She was a woman who refused to tolerate even a speck of dirt in her marriage.

Dirt was dirt, regardless of how small the speck claimed to be.

She yanked her arm out of his grasp. Without an audience to perform for, the rage she had been suppressing exploded, her voice echoing sharply in the confined car. "That doesn't change the fact that you threw punches for another woman!"

Pierce frowned slightly at her outburst. "It's such a minor issue. Is it really worth getting this hysterical over?"

"A minor issue?" Tears threatened to spill again. "You got into a physical altercation over another woman and you think it's nothing? What counts as a major issue, Pierce? Cheating? An affair?"

Pierce's expression hardened. "You're blowing this completely out of proportion."

"Am I blowing it out of proportion, or are you just out of line?" Riley finally let the tears fall.

His jaw tightened, and he pinched the bridge of his nose like she was an unreasonable burden. "You're hysterical right now, and I'm not going to argue with you."

His dismissive tone made her feel like a raving lunatic.

She wanted to stay calm, but the crushing weight of everything made it impossible. "You seem perfectly composed right now! Where was all this restraint when you were throwing punches?"

She desperately tried to stop crying, but the tears just kept cascading down her cheeks.

Pierce had never seen her break down like this, and his frustration instantly evaporated into guilt. He gently took her hands, his voice softening. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. Please don't cry. It kills me to see you like this."

His comfort only made her sob harder. "You don't care about me! You only care about her! You saw another man messing with her and you lost your damn mind to protect her!"

He swallowed his pride and kept trying to soothe her. "Alright, I was wrong. I admit I was wrong. Just stop crying." He reached out to wipe her tears.

Riley dodged his touch. "If you actually mean it, then you need to cut off all contact with her from now on."

Utterly exhausted by the sight of that name, she shoved the car door open and stepped out.

As she walked around the hood toward the house, she watched Pierce answer the call.

The second she stepped inside the foyer, the roar of the car engine echoed from the driveway. She froze as the sound faded into the distance, completely gone within seconds.

Unbelievable.

He had actually just driven off and left her.

She tilted her head back to stop another wave of tears, then dragged herself up the stairs to her bedroom.

She pulled out a medical journal to distract herself, but the words just blurred together on the page.

Giving up, she tossed the book aside and collapsed onto the bed, letting her mind spiral.