Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“You were . . .” I step back as if she’s taken a swing at me. “You were with Oliver from the beginning?”
“He and I had been dating for almost six months when I went on that first date with you. I was just trying to appease our parents, but then my dating you made them so happy. I don’t think I realized how desperately I’d been craving their approval. So I went on a second date and a third, keeping it from Oliver the whole time. But you were so sweet, and I didn’t want to give you up, so I broke up with him. But then I found out I was pregnant and lost the baby and ended up in the hospital. That was the first Oliver even knew I’d been seeing you too. He never did anything wrong.”
I close my eyes, trying to rewrite history as I’ve accepted it for over a decade. “Then why didn’t he say so?”
“I imagine for the same reason you haven’t let him know that you and Savvy aren’t really engaged.” She cocks her head to the side. “You stormed in there and made assumptions, and they fit so neatly into the box you’d all been shoving him in since the day you met.” She shrugs. “I think it was easier for him to play the villain than to admit I’d broken his heart right alongside yours.”
I put a hand on the building, needing to steady myself.
She bites her bottom lip. “At the time, I was rocked by my miscarriage and grateful that he spared me from having to own up to my own deceit. I know it probably doesn’t mean much to you now, but for what it’s worth, I regret not being honest with you.”
“You didn’t cheat on me with him. You cheated on him. With me.” I stare at the woman I once loved more than anything and let the truth hit me. I feel sick. And even sicker that there were moments when I . . . I suspected.
She gives a shaky nod, and tears spill down her cheeks. “I thought it was exciting—dating brothers, keeping it from both of you.” She swipes under each eye with her knuckle. “I was so stupid.”
I close my eyes and tilt my head back, staring at the clear night sky. “You let me blame Oliver. You let Oliver be scorned by everyone.”
“I know.” She clears her throat and draws in a ragged breath. “When I ran into him in L.A. a few years ago, I told him I was ready to come clean, but he said there was no point. He said everyone had already made up their minds about him and revealing the complicated truth of what I did would only bring me more pain. But you’ve been so angry with him for years, and he never deserved that. I’m the one you should’ve been angry with. I’m the one who deserved your scorn.”
I scrub a hand over my face. I told myself I needed Savvy to wear my ring and pretend to be mine because I wanted to avoid embarrassment, but it wasn’t just that. I wanted to hurt him the way I thought he hurt me, and I used Savvy to do it.
Part Fourteen
EIGHT YEARS AGO
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
OLIVER
Iheaded to the city yesterday, determined to confront my father again about the internship and giving me back my things, but I got there just in time to see Savvy heading into the building by his side.
I’m not sure what’s worse—the possibility that she might learn the truth or the idea of her being introduced to Alec and falling desperately in love. Both options make me feel sick to my stomach. I wish I’d never brought her into this.
Savvy would like Alec. I already know it. What was it Portentia said to me the day she broke off our secret little fling so she could date him? “The bad-boy thing is hot, Oliver, but women want to be ravished by the bad boy. Alec’s the kind of guy we want to marry.”
And even after that, I let everyone think I seduced her. That I stole her away from Alec. Rose was the only one who ever knew the truth.
When I saw Savvy going into the building with my father, I could see how it would play out. A month after I’m out of here, she’d run into him again, or maybe he’d track her down. He’d sweet-talk her into meeting Alec, and Alec would charm her. He’d be able to give her everything I couldn’t. A family. Stability. A relationship she wouldn’t have to hide. Honesty.
Then they’d get serious, and she’d find out I’m the half-brother. She’d find out I lied and twisted the truth to keep her from seeing what I am to them. And I’d have to see her at every Christmas my father demanded I come home for. I’d have to watch her live happily with Charles’s real son. The one who got more than his genetics. The one who got a dad.