She shakes her hand slightly, as if encouraging me to take it.
“It’s a letter. From Zach.”
My stomach sinks. I’m not sure I want to read about their relationship.
She moves to the sink and places it down on the top, as if it has suddenly burned her.
“The choice is yours,” she says, her expression grave. “I’m sorry, Jax, truly. For everything. Not that those words can ever make up for all I’ve said and done over the years.”
My breath catches.
“What’s in the letter, Kat?”
She rests her hand on it, staring down, before her eyes meet mine, her demeanour sad.
“The truth.” Kat opens her mouth and closes it again, swallowing. “It contains the truth, sixteen years of lies.”
She turns and leaves the bathroom, heading back onto the terrace, leaving me staring after her.
My gaze drops to the paper, resting on the marble top.
CHAPTER 21
KAT
The door of the villa closes. An unprecedented heaviness sits in my body.
He caught me at a weak point, and typical Jax, was trying to help. Has always been there to help.
Despite the heat, a coldness spreads through my limbs. I close my eyes, begging the sun to warm my frozen soul.
I’ve been such an idiot.
They say,“Sorry is the hardest word.”
But to me, it’s not sorry. That’s the easy part. It’s the other words that go with it. The words that make a true apology, not a lame excuse.
Played. I was played, like the Steinway grand piano I loved so much as a child.
I look back at the door.
Jax has gone.
Gone with the letter that vindicates him.
My chest constricts, pain crushing my heart and lungs. I suck in a breath, then another. Sobs wrack my body.
I bite down on my wrist to stifle the sound, but the usual confident and controlled me, has gone.
All the anguish of the past sixteen years. Jax, Elijah and Darra, Pen, Lottie, Zach… Dad, rise to the surface. Everything I’ve ever suppressed. And I’m the queen of suppressing my feelings.
Sixteen Years Ago
“Oh. My. God. Is that Danny?” Carol hisses, next to me.
I follow her gaze, stopping short.
“The bastard,” she says, turning to face me, her hand gripping my arm.
