“I…he…” I dropped my head back on the wall.
“No, don’t tell me…damn it, Tori, you did not go back to him!”
I scrunched my brows at the ferocity of her voice.
“I still love him. He told me the truth.”
“Truth? About what? How he left you pregnant and alone. Ghosted you and never bothered to explain why he left? Never bothered to come back?”
“It’s complicated.”
She disconnected, and I stared at the phone, too stunned to move until my phone buzzed with an incoming video call. Witha relieved exhale escaping me, I answered, seeing her angry face pop up. Her blonde hair was in two braids, and her green eyes were lined with charcoal.
“That’s better. Now I can yell at you face to face.”
My lips pursed.
“Are you insane? You do not want that man back in your life.”
“Cindy, you don’t understand.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then help me understand why you would let a man who destroyed you back into your life. Into Reid’s life. What if he does the same thing again?”
“I don’t think he will.”
“You don’t think he will, but you don’t know it.”
I let my head fall back again. “He had no choice but to leave me.”
Her laugh was cruel. “Is that what he told you? He had a choice, and he took it.”
“It’s more than that.” And I wondered if I was trying to convince myself or Cindy.
“Like what?”
“He was protecting me and my parents.” I explained what Gabe had told me, my belief in him rising again, the swell in my chest returning because I had seen the emotion in him, the anguish he’d suffered along with me.
Cindy’s body dropped back in her chair, and she rubbed her hand over her face.
“He didn’t know about Reid, and he…he still loves me.” He had remained faithful to me through all the years, and I believed him. There was too much truth in his eyes, pain in his voice. “Do you remember the paper flower I wouldn’t let you throw out? The one he made for me?” It was in Reid’s baby book. The only piece of his father I could offer him.
“Yeah.”
“He still has the one I made for him. He’s been carrying it in his wallet all this time.”
She sighed, and I could see the change in her. “This sounds like something out of a movie, Tor. This stuff doesn’t happen.”
“But it is.”
“And the other woman? The one who answered his phone? How many women has he been with while he’s been in love with you?”
“None. It was his sister. He never knew she talked to me. But, Cindy, he never moved on. Just like I never did.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
“You. I believe him. If you could talk to him, you’d see it and hear it in his voice.”
“God, you’re a pain in my ass,” she teased. “Did you seriously call me because you’re thinking about going back to him?”
