“Your sister is far from innocent,” I snapped.
“Maybe not, but she sure as hell didn’t deserve what you did to her.”
No, she didn’t. In fact, she deserved the very best, but that would never be me. Not when I knew the shit that would follow me around for the rest of my life. She would be better off as far away from me as possible.
“Is there a point in all this? Do you really think Bailey wants or needs you to come out here and scold me? We’re not in high school. She’s a big girl, and she can handle the truth.”
“The truth?” he laughed. “Is that what we’re calling this?”
My breath caught in my chest at the look he shot me.
“Liam, I’ve known you my whole fucking life. You’ve looked out for my sister since the second grade.”
“Third,” I corrected.
“And there’s not a single person on this earth that you would let hurt her. So, tell me why you threw it all away in one night. Tell me why you would hurt her like that when I know for a fact that you’re in love with her. Tell me what the fuck is going on because I know there is no way you would ever let anyone, including yourself, ever make her feel like she wasn’t worth everything in the world!”
I had nothing for him. As I stood there, desperately scraping tofind some answer that would make him believe me, the truth of the matter snuck its way to my lips.
I almost said it. Almost told him every fucking detail, but what would that do?
Nothing.
I had hurt her, even if I hadn’t meant a single second of it. She would never forgive me for what I had done. It was over now. I’d seen to that when I took Ellie May home with me.
“It was too much,” I said, going with the simplest answer. “I wanted to see where things could go, but you know nothing ever happens at the pace you want in this town. Hell, your mother was already planning our wedding. We’d been together one night, and my life was already laid out. I didn’t even have a say in it.”
“It was too much? That’s your excuse?” he gritted out.
“I could see the stars in her eyes, Brody. She might not have been planning the wedding with your mom, but she wanted it. It was all too much.”
“So, you talk to her about it. You tell her things are moving too fast.”
“She showed up at the hospital, ready to baby me. She was going to take the entire fucking week off work, and for what?”
“To take care of you, asshole! Because she cares about you. You were in an accident in her car.”
God, if only he knew the truth. He would fucking hate me if he knew the lengths Austin would go to in order to hurt me.
“And that was nice of her to want to help, but I don’t need any woman fawning over me every second of the day. I want someone who will be there at night to cook my food and do my laundry. I want a woman who will go to bed with me and fuck me.”
He flinched at my words.
“But I do not want a woman whose only goal in life is to get married and spend every fucking second of the day thinking about me.”
I needed him to fucking leave. Every second he was here made itharder to keep it together, not to tell him just how much I fucking hated myself for what I had to do to her.
But as long as I kept her away from me, Austin wouldn’t go after her. The sick fuck would do anything to destroy me, and she was the catalyst.
“You know what?” he huffed. “I think some part of you wants to believe that. Cuz it’s easier, right? You tell yourself all those lies, and eventually, you might think you did the right thing.”
“Brody—”
“I don’t know why the hell you’re doing this. I’m not sure I ever will. And I still fucking hate you for what you did to her, but it’s all a lie. One day, she’ll find out, and by then, it’ll probably be too late for you.”
“It already is,” I yelled, but not at him.
No, I was yelling at myself, reminding my head that I had already fucked things up with her, and there was no going back now.
