He’s gone.
The thought was intolerable, and Gage tried his best to explain it away.
Maybe, while he was changing, Aaron had pulled his car into the garage.
That had to be what had happened.
But then, where was Aaron?
Gage shut the front door and locked it. He turned to survey the room, hoping that he’d overlooked Aaron when he’d come downstairs. He’d said that he was going to reheat their dinner, so maybe he’d been squatted down behind the kitchen counter, trying to find… something. Gage’s mind petered out before it could come up with a likely excuse for why Aaron would be so busy in the kitchen when all he needed to use was the microwave. He clung to the hope that Aaron was ducked down behind the counter doing something—anything—but when Gage arrived in the kitchen, Aaron wasn’t to be found.
A glass of ice water, beaded with condensation, was the only immediate sign that Aaron had been there at all.
What about dinner? Aaron had mentioned bringing it back to the room. When Gage had come down the stairs, he recalled that Aaron had just set one of the plates on the dining room table—and when he’d pushed Gage down onto it, that plate had been swept aside.
Gage glanced at the table and noticed the plate was gone. The candles were still burning, and—
There, on the table, was his missing phone.
The hairs on the back of Gage’s neck stood on end. He knew for a fact that he hadn’t left his phone on the table. He’d come downstairs in pocketless pearls, and he hadn’t even come close to the table when he’d come in through the front door to find Aaron cooking dinner. If Aaron had already found his phone, then…
Under most circumstances, fear paralyzed Gage. This time, it whisked him forward so quickly he stubbed his toe against the leg of the table. Cursing under his breath at the dull pain, he snatched his phone up and turned on the screen.
There were private messages from KnotMyProblem waiting for him. The preview text stopped Gage’s heart.
KnotMyProblem: you’re a scummy pos who doesn’t des—
“Oh my god,” Gage whispered. He sank into the only chair pulled out from the table and stared at his phone in horror. KnotMyProblem had been offline for the last week, likely licking his wounds after Gage had set him straight for the final time. Gage hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about calling off the fake marriage. But if he’d sent Gage messages following up, and Aaron had seen…
Terror struck. Gage squeezed his eyes shut, fighting it off like he had when he was a child. Back then, he’d block out the world beneath the blankets of his bed, hoping the monsters that lived in the shadows wouldn’t find him. Only now, the monsters weren’t imaginary—whatever horrors lurked behind the lock screen of his phone were very, very real, and Gage couldn’t hide from them forever.
Sick to his stomach, he opened his eyes and unlocked his phone. The conversation with KnotMyProblem had been left open, and there were messages in it that he’d never sent—things he never would have said. Spirits sinking, he scrolled back through the correspondence. So much time had passed since they’d last talked that their older messages had been archived, leaving just the conversation from that evening active.
The more Gage read, the more he wished he’d never read at all. The last few messages exchanged crushed him.
KnotMyProblem: you need to step away from the phone before you spontaneously combust. Go take a cold shower, apologize to TD for being an asshole, then give him a big sloppy kiss for me, okay?
TeenDad2: fuck you
KnotMyProblem: I can see why TD loves you. So charming. So eloquent.
TeenDad2: You know what? I’m done.
Aaron.
Aaron had found his phone, discovered the conversation with KnotMyProblem, and learned that Gage was going to marry him. KnotMyProblem hadn’t bothered to explain that the arrangement was fraudulent, and that Gage had only ever agreed to marry him for his insurance. Instead, he’d attacked Aaron when Aaron was confused and ignorant.
After a conversation like that, Gage thought it likely that Aaron wasn’t just done with the conversation—he was done with the relationship.
How could Gage blame him? Why would Aaron ever come back to him, after what he’d read?
If Gage had been the one to find out that Aaron was involved in something similar, he would have been out the door, too. His heartbreak would have been too much to tolerate.
Gage hiccupped. Tears rolled down his cheeks in fat droplets.
All he’d wanted was to have a future with Aaron. He’d been strong for so long, but Bo had been sick, and in his weakness, he’d made a choice that had destroyed them.
The family he’d dreamed about would never be.
