I felt sick to my stomach. There was no way my Aoife was marrying anyone else. It wouldn’t even be possible, considering she’d never bothered to legally change her name. The only way for her to follow through with it would be if she trusted the man she was about to marry with her real identity. Did she trusthimthe same way she once had faith that I would save her from the fate her father had in store for her?
My chest ached. I couldn’t stomach the thought of her putting the same faith in another man that she’d once had in me. I fucked it up when I let another woman come between us and I could only imagine what some other schumck might do when faced with Bill Quinn.
I already had the post and image screenshotted and saved the minute it popped up, and thank fuck for that because it was deleted off Shaina Carmine’s profile feed moments later as I stared at the first image I’d seen of my long lost best friend in twelve years.
She was out there, and now that I had a thread to follow, it wouldn’t take long to find her. All I had to do was find Shaina Carmine or any trace of Miranda Bradford. Considering how well-hidden my girl had been up until now, I figured Shaina was my best bet. I called the only man in my circle I trusted with this knowledge.
“Miles, need you in my office.”
“Now?”
“Yesterday, if you can time travel,” I said and hung up the phone.
Miles didn’t even need to see what was on the screen, just that I was seated in front of the infamous laptop. “Holy shit! You found her?”
“I did. We need to make sure no one else got wind of her friend’s post before it was removed.”
“Someone outed her?”
I shook my head. “Not on purpose. Looks like someone in her circle wanted to share Aoife’s happy news.”
I turned to see pity plastered on my friend’s face. “What happy news?”
“She’s engaged.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, that sums it up. I need you to run down Shaina Carmine for me. I want every fucking detail you can find about her.”
“Is that her new name?” I shook my head. “Friend who posted?”
“Yeah, Aoife’s apparently going by Miranda Bradford now.”
“Miranda Bradford?” Miles asked as he seemed deep in thought. “Is that name significant in any way?”
“Not that I know of, but if it triggers something for you, I need to know that, too.”
NINE
Hopeful
AOIFE
I staredat the ring Drew held out for me. All my friends were gathered around the periphery, but it felt like none of them existed.
This was all wrong.
My heart hammered and I started to feel light headed as the ring sparkled from the box Drew held up. He was on one knee in front of me and my tongue was literally glued to the roof of my mouth.
“Will you marry me, love?”
Nope.
I was still incapable of words but my answer rang loudly inside my head. There was no way I could marry Drew, or anyone else for that matter.
He grinned at me and then took the ring out of the box and slid it on my finger. The same finger I always dreamed would one day be home to a ring that Logan Maddox put there. My stomach ached at the thought. He had well and truly betrayed me for a scheming, conniving woman who didn’t even have to try terribly hard to push a wedge between us. Before I could even blink, thatwedge had grown into a gaping canyon and I had to leave my first and only love behind to start a new life of my own.
“She’s stunned speechless,” Drew teased, but I could see a glimmer of something in his eyes that hinted at his displeasure in my inability to find my voice and declare an emphatic, “Yes,” to his proposal.
