“Well, it’s almost worse that you weren’t drunk. Because sucker punching my brother was low, Axel. I get that you were pissed at him, and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to be punched, but a sucker punch is lame. Look him in the eyes, and then do what you need to do.”
“Is that what he told you happened? I’ve never sucker punched anyone in my life. I don’t need to. I’d fight your brother with one hand tied behind my back. I don’t need a fuckingadvantage when it comes to Collin. We had words, and those words had nothing to do with Emerson,” I said, remembering that night like it had just happened yesterday.
“He said that you came up out of nowhere and punched him before he could prepare for it.” She shrugged.
“And he’s such a truthful individual, so we should believe that?” I shook my head with disbelief. “Come on, Wren, you know me better than that. I don’t need to sneak up on your brother to get in a punch.”
“So you had words first?” she asked, her voice still laced with suspicion.
“Correct.”
She glared at me like I was the enemy. “Is that when you told him that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? Is that when you shared a secret that I’d trusted you with?” Her tears were falling harder now. “You used something that I trusted you with to hurt him. But you only hurt me in the end. You were the only person I told, Axel. I trusted you.”
I couldn’t take the pain I could see in her eyes. The hurt raining down her cheeks as she continued to cry. I stepped forward and wrapped her up in my arms, holding her against me.
“I would never betray you, Wren. I don’t care how angry I was, I wouldn’t betray you,” I said over and over until her breathing had slowed.
She leaned her head back to look at me. “You’re the only person I told. He said that you told him about the affair. How would he know about it? I’d never told him about it.”
“I don’t have a fucking clue. I never brought that up. Just like I never sucker punched him. We had words, yes. But they were not about your father’s affair or about Emerson.”
She stepped back and shook her head, as if she didn’t understand what I was talking about.
“What were you arguing about, then?” she asked, her voice tentative.
I exhaled. “I thought he had some balls to stay at the bar after he saw we were all there. He was clearly getting loaded, drinking shot after shot. I was upset about my fight with you, and I wasn’t going to make it worse by getting into it with your brother. So I decided to leave. We all did. We didn’t want to get into it there with him.”
She narrowed her gaze. “So you were going to leave and what—your fist accidentally collided with his face?”
“Your brother was drunk, Wren. Sloppy drunk. Jazzy had just cut him off, and he was making a scene. Bridger wanted to drag his ass outside and beat the shit out of him, but I insisted we leave, and that was only out of respect for you. I would have loved to kick his ass, but we walked toward the door, and he approached me.”
“He approached you?” she asked, and I could tell she was trying to process the information.
“Yes. He approached me. All of us, actually. He was upset about Emerson, and we ignored him. And then he followed us outside and started talking about you.”
“What? Why was he talking about me?”
“I don’t have a fucking clue, but I saw red, and I punched him.” I shrugged.
“What did he say that made you see red?” she pressed.
“You’d stayed the night at my place the night before. You were in town for a short time, so he clearly knew that you hadn’t come home.”
“I’m an adult. I live on my own. I don’t need to explain where I spend the night to my brother.”
“Agreed. But he got in my face and started shouting, and then he asked me if I’d fucked you.” My hands fisted at the memory.“I wasn’t going to let him disrespect you like that, so I gave him what he deserved.”
She was quiet as she paced in a circle, her quiet sobs filling the air around us.
“I’m going to ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me, Axel.” She swiped at her tears. “It doesn’t matter either way at this point. I just need to know the truth.”
“I will always be honest with you.” There was zero hesitation in my voice.
“Did you go home with Megan Wilson that night?”
“What? I was with my brother and my cousins, Wren. Why the fuck would I go home with Megan Wilson?”
“You’d had a thing with her a few months prior.” She threw her hands in the air.
