“So you think I would have sex with you, make all sorts of promises and plans, and then, the following night, take another woman home?” I asked. My mind was blown that this was what she’d thought. “I didn’t take what happened between us lightly, Wren. It was a big deal. A big fucking deal. Why would you think I would do that?”
She was crying hysterically now. “Collin told me that you told him about my father’s affair, and he was devastated by it. And then he said that you left the bar drunk with Megan Wilson, after making out with her all night in front of everyone.” Her hand pressed against her chest, as if she was trying to soothe her pain. “You broke my fucking heart.”
“Jesus, Wren. How could you believe that?”
“He’s my brother. Why would he lie to me? I thought you were pissed about what he’d done to Emerson. I thought you believed that I’d known about him and Farah. So I just—I don’t know. I believed it.” A guttural sob escaped her, and she bent over her knees to catch her breath. “I believed it. He’s my brother. Why would he hurt me like this?”
I moved closer to her as she stood up and met my gaze. I placed a hand on each side of her face. “I would never do that to you. I didn’t have sex with another woman for a fucking year, Wren. I waited for you to come to your senses. I fucking waited for you. I thought you were pushing me away because I’d asked if you knew about your brother and Farah. Hell, I don’t know. Maybe a part of me worried that you regretted what had happened between us. That the family drama would make it too uncomfortable for everyone. I don’t fucking know what I thought. You’d blocked me and left town. So what was I supposed to think?”
“And you waited a year?” She shook her head, swiping at her falling tears.
“I waited a year, and then I got drunk and hooked up with a tourist who I never saw again because I thought it would help me get over you.”
“And did it?”
“Well, here I am sitting up waiting for you to get home now. Wrax is in that barn because I knew you would be lost without him. I hid in the background at the world championships just to see you achieve what you’d worked so hard for. So no, I don’t think I’d ever get over losing you. I missed you, and even if it’s just our friendship that we can get back, I’d fucking sell my soul to have it back.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered, and she shook her head. “Why would Collin lie to me and hurt me like this?”
“I don’t know. But look what he did to Emerson! And then you found out tonight that he sold Wrax. He’s a piece of shit for doing this.”
“He’s my brother, Axel.” She sniffed, and I could hear the pain in her voice. She knew it was true; she was just processing it now.
I tipped her chin up to meet my gaze. “I don’t know why he did what he did. I can only tell you what actually happened. And none of that happened, Wren. Aside from me punching him in the face, nothing else happened.”
Her bottom lip quivered. “I just don’t know who to trust anymore.”
“And how is that supposed to make me feel, huh? I’ve never lied to you, Wren. Yet you didn’t give me the benefit of the doubt back then. You believed the worst about me. And now you’re looking me in the eyes and telling me you don’t know who you can fucking trust. You’ve always been able to trust me, and you know it.”
She nodded. “I know. I should have known that. I don’t know what to say.”
I was doing what I could to contain my anger. That fucker had caused all of this. But he was her brother, and I knew she loved him.
But how could she not come to me and tell me what he’d said? How could she believe this?
She moved forward and hugged me. “I’m sorry, Axel.”
Her words were hard to make out over the sobs escaping her throat.
I wrapped my arms around her. “I know you are.”
“I trusted the wrong person,” she said when she pulled back. Her eyes were swollen and red, her bottom lip still trembling.
I nodded.
I was pissed off.
She’d trusted the fucking devil, and we’d lost two years over a bunch of bullshit lies.
I was so fucking angry.
“Get some sleep, Wren.”
She turned on her heels and walked up the stairs.
And I watched her disappear into her apartment.
It hurt like hell that she hadn’t trusted me enough to come to me.
