She raised a brow, seething. “Seriously. You ruin my life and think you can tell me what to do.”
“We both said and did things we shouldn’t have, but that’s no reason to attack Brooke on the street. In public.”
“Why not? It’s very public now that you called off the wedding. You seriously told all those people that you realized you loved someone else more and couldn’t go through with the wedding because it would have ultimately hurt me.”
Brooke gasped behind me. “You did what?”
He shifted so he could see both women, though he could block Brooke easily again if Kristi got any ideas about going after her. “I told the truth. And most of the people said they thought it was a difficult but wise decision.”
“You could have said it was a mutual decision.”
“I did, because why the fuck would you want to stay with me when I love someone else?”
Her whole body went rigid, her arms locked at her sides, hands fisted. “You humiliated me.”
Cody shook his head. “There was no way out of telling everyone the wedding was off without giving an explanation. They’d all start speculating and making shit up. This way, I took the brunt of the load by saying it was me. At worst, I thought people would speculate I cheated on you.”
“You did. The whole time we were together.”
Brooke took a step forward. “That’s a lie. You broke up with him.”
“Because he kissedyou, you selfish bitch.” Kristi glowered.
Cody checked out the few people walking down the sidewalks, who were now giving them looks. “You’re right. I did do that. And that’s when you and I both knew I was in love with her, even if it took me a little while longer to really let myself believe it.”
Her eyes glassed over with unshed tears. “How could you?”
He shrugged and implored her with his gaze. “I couldn’t help it. This is how it was meant to be. She’s the one.”
Kristi’s blue eyes turned stormy. “I was the one you asked to marry you.”
He and Brooke didn’t say anything to that, because the truth was, he’d never actually proposed.
The second that dawned on Kristi, she glared at Brooke. “Another thing you took from me.”
“You set yourself up for that when you got pregnant under dubious circumstances,” Brooke snapped back.
Kristi’s eyes went wide. “You told her that.”
“I don’t keep secrets from her.” They’d shared a lot of whispers in the dark each night. Mostly daydreams about what their daughter would have been like as she grew up. The things she’d love to do. The way she’d be. The milestones she’d reach.Birthdays. Each new school year. Graduations. Boys. The talk they’d each have with her about dating and sex. What they’d say to her on her wedding day, when she had her first child.
Whenever one of them started with the, “She’ll never…” the other stopped that by replacing it with, “She would have…”
It worked most of the time to keep them from drowning in sorrow for all she’d never do. But not all the time.
Kristi’s glare finally stayed on him and away from Brooke when she said, “My father can’t believe you did this to him after he got you the board position at the children’s hospital. You owe him, and this is how you repay him?”
“First, those words sound like his, and it must really piss you off that his concern is that he did something for me and thinks I owe him, not that your heart is broken. Second, I didn’t do shit to him. I appreciate the opportunity he gave me. I thanked him for it many times. But I also cultivated relationships with the other board members and came up with a lot of cost-cutting services while implementing others for the staff and patients. I’ve made myself useful and necessary, while your father uses his position to throw around his perceived power because of the people he knows and uses. I bet he even thinks he can get me kicked off the board for hurting you. I mean, that must feel nice, but you know, and I know, it’s just his ego that can’t take it. He wants me gone because I showed him up in the nine months I’ve been there. There’s no way the board will vote against me. I made sure of that by doing exactly what he wanted me to do. I showed all of them that I deserve that spot.”
He gave her a smug look. “That’s exactly why you loved being with me. Because I’m ambitious and good at what I do, and people notice. You loved standing beside me and flaunting it that I was yours. I didn’t mind. It made me feel good. You made me feel that way because you’re intelligent and strong and capable all on your own. You don’t need me, your father, or anyone elsefor people to see those things and more in you. I get this has been hard on you. I get that you’re angry. But we were never going to work, not after the things we did to each other. It was always coming to a destructive end.”
She still simmered with anger. “It didn’t have to be this way.”
He could see it in her eyes. She couldn’t let it go. Not yet. She was too caught up in the pain and anger.
Kristi huffed out a frustrated breath and turned a spiteful gaze on Brooke, even though it should be directed at him. “You’ll get what’s coming to you.” She stormed away.
Cody ushered Brooke into the other door that led into the small lobby of her building. Two elevators up ahead, the door to the stairs on their right. On the left, a board that they’d use to tell visitors which businesses were upstairs and in which suite.
