Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
I stared at him, waiting for him to get to the point.
“Anyway, it wasn’t one of your flings. Well, I guess, technically, it was, but she hadn’t come here to fuck. She’d come here…” He paused, and a flash of regret crossed his expression. It was so out of place on him that I almost questioned it. “To tell you that she was pregnant.”
That last sentence replayed in my head over and over again. Then, what he had told me all began to click together and sink in. For a moment, I didn’t think my heart was beating. I didn’t inhale a breath. I stood, unable to speak or move.
She’d come here. She had found me and come to tell me. Even though I’d left her the note and the pill. She would have planned on admitting her identity. Knowing that I’d question how she had known my name. How she had found me.
I sucked in a breath when my lungs began to burn, and my eyes bored into Luther’s. “How do you know?”
If he’d known all this time, I was going to go get my Glock and end his life. Blaise could string me up if he wanted to, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive that.
“Recently. The night we drank wine and played darts. She’d said it as if it wasn’t important. As if you wouldn’t care either way. I realized she had no idea that was the only thing holding you back from going caveman and laying claim on her ass. More than just sexually, of course.”
Remorse, regret, guilt. Fuck, I didn’t know what this was slamming into me with such brutal force that I would be bent over with my hands on my knees, gasping, if my broken rib wasn’t in the way. Turning, I gripped the counter and held on tightly. Rage pounded through me, and if I could pick up the goddamn table and hurl it at the wall, I would.
“Yeah,” Luther drawled. “That’s the reaction I expected. So, I’m gonna go on upstairs now.” His words were muffled by the thudding in my head—or was that my heartbeat? I wasn’t sure.
She had come to me.
Those five words repeated over and over in my head until they chiseled their way into the wall I kept around me. Then, I felt it. The first crack. The one that would lead to the crumble. The wall that protected me from feeling anything that made me weak. Anything that had the power to hurt me. The wall I had constructed years ago. The one that had eventually sent my ex-wife away.
It was in danger of being brought down for the first time since I’d firmly put it in place.
Forty-Seven
Branwen
Stepping out of Stevie’s room after she finally fell asleep for her nap, I froze at the sight of Linc standing outside in the hallway. His face didn’t look as bad as Luther’s had when I saw him in the kitchen at lunch, but there was swelling in his left eye, a cut on his cheekbone, and bruising.
I’d had most of the night and all morning to think about what I would say to Linc. I had even gone as far as rehearsing it in the mirror while using concealer to cover the dark circles under my eyes.
None of that came out though.
Instead, I blurted, “I’d like someone to take me to get tested for STDs.”
His flinch was as if I had slapped him hard across the face. The look in his eyes as they stayed locked on me were different. As if I had hurt him instead of the other way around.
Nope, just because I called you out on your whore lifestyle does not mean you get to be hurt. I have every right to get tested.
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared back at him.
He blew out a breath slowly. “Okay. I, uh…I deserve that.”
A hard laugh fell from my lips as my heart, which he’d shattered internally, lay in shards around me.
Whatever he came here to say, I didn’t want to hear it. If it was an apology for last night, why? There was no point. It had served a purpose.
“Last night—” he began, actually looking remorseful.
I held up a hand and shook my head. “No. I don’t care, Linc. I get it, okay? I also get that I am just a fuck for you. One of many. I don’t want to talk about it.”
I started to walk around him, wanting to be as far away from him as possible. Seeing him only made the damage I’d allowed him to cause me roar back to life.
His hand shot out and grabbed my arm to stop me. Closing my eyes, I took a deep, calming breath. I could not yell at him and call him names outside our daughter’s door.