“No, we don’t,” I growl. “Now get the fuck out.”
He gives Sarah a last look. “No one believed youthenfor a reason. No one will believe you now.”
“Then you should have no problem with me joining the other women who have stories to tell about you.” Sarah’s eyes are blazing bright. Whatever weakness she experienced when she found out that Violet had been protecting Landon vanished.
That shuts them both up. And I can see, clear as day, that they know others are talking. They’re aware of the investigations.
“Be careful, both of you,” Violet flings at us. “You never know what can happen.”
They leave, and we stand in silence, frozen for a long moment even after the door slams shut, and wehear the sound of tires spitting gravel as they tear down my drive.
Sarah’s trembling slightly. She just looks at me, her green eyes dark with horror and something I can’t quite name.
We both know the truth now. It’s worse than we imagined.
Violet’s been helping him all along.
My fists stay curled, fresh blood seeping out.
Beside me, Sarah lets out a sound I can’t name—half a sob, half a ragged exhale. She folds her arms tight across her middle like she’s trying to hold herself together.
And just like that, the rage in me gutters out.
“Dove—”
Her knees buckle, and I catch her before she hits the floorboards. She clutches the front of my shirt, burying her face against me, shaking so hard it nearly rattles my bones.
“She knew,” she whispers, broken. “All this time…she knew. And she covered for him. How can a woman do that to other women?”
“I know,” I rasp, pressing my chin to her hair. My own body quivers. “Christ, Sarah, I’m so sorry. I should’ve—God, I should’ve believed you. I should’ve protected you.”
She jerks back, eyes wild with pain. “It wasn’t only you. It was everyone. My father. Your father then. Violet. Why…why is it so hard to trust women when they tell you a man hurt them? Like it’s a foreign concept, like it’s not in the realm of possibility when it happens every second of every day around the world.”
My throat burns as tears blur my vision. I grip her face between my hands. “I was too damn young, too scared, too loyal to the wrong people, and I ruined us. But you always were and are everything.”
Tears spill down her cheeks. She shakes her head. “I’m wrecked, Cade. You can’t fix me.”
“You don’t need fixin’, baby.” My voice cracks. “I just want to be beside you. I want to carry it with you.”
For a long moment, we just hold on—me, sobbing into her hair, her fists knotted in my shirt like she’ll drown if she lets go.
The kiss is not soft, not sweet—it’s broken, like us.
A clash of salt and tears, teeth knocking, desperate and raw.
A kiss that says we’re shattered, but we’re still here, still together.
CHAPTER 36
sarah
It’s been a week since the fire, and I’m still at Cade’s.
It’s confusing as hell to be here.
“Am I just a freaking weak doormat?” I ask Joy as we have a drink at Blackwood Prime.
“Duke once called Elena a whore,” Joy remarks.
