“You betrayed me, Gina. This is the worst betrayal of my life. You’re someone I’ve given my heart to.”
“It’s not what you think, though. I promise you. I wasn’t going to write a story about you.”
“It’s easy for you to say now,” he says. “But I could never believe that. So, you do what you’ve got to do, Gina. You need the story to keep your job. You write the story.”
“I don’t want the story, Hunter. I want you.”
“Well, you don’t have me, Gina. There is no us anymore. You don’t have to be my fake girlfriend. You don’t have to write this fake, cutesy story about my grandparents' love story—which we now know didn’t really exist. You do you, Gina. And if you want to write a story about me, about my cancer, about me falling for you, about my fucked-up family, you write whatever the hell you want. Because I know you’re just going to do it anyway.”
“Is that really what you think of me?”
“I don’t know what to think of you anymore. I don’t know what to think, period. All I know is I fell in love with a girl that doesn’t exist. I fell in love with a girl who gave me her heart and a beautiful smile and a touching story. And it really meant nothing, right?”
“It didn’t mean nothing. You don’t mean nothing.”
“I wish I could believe a word that was coming out of your mouth, Gina. But hey, at least you got the scoop you wanted.”
“I didn’t,” I pause. “I didn’t get the scoop that I wanted, Hunter. What I want is you.”
“Well, I guess then we’re both shit out of luck, because you don’t have me.” He hangs up the phone, and tears stream down my face. I fucked up. I blew it. This is all my fault. I knew there is nothing I can do to make it right, because the fact of the matter is, I came here for the story, and I didn’t tell him. Even though I’d fallen in love with him and vowed that I would never betray him, he didn’t know that. And given his history—the fact that his last girlfriend had dumped him for such a horrific reason—I know he has no reason to believe me. To trust me. And that breaks my heart.
It breaks me in ways I’ve never felt before in my life. And I don’t know what I am going to do. For the first time in my life, I truly understand what it is to be broken. I truly understand what it is to lose something. And I know I will never be the same again. But I know that in this moment, I have to be strong because my sister needs me. And she is going through something absolutely heartbreaking, as well. I don’t want to dump my emotional baggage on her. Right now, she needs to be strong if she is truly going to leave Garth.
And I’ll have to be her support. I’ll call Emma later. I know she will be strong for me when I break down.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Hunter
I thought I was past my dark, gray days, but I guess the universe has decided to prove me wrong.
I head toward my grandfather’s study, feeling like a robot. The joy that I felt just the week before—being here, being in this space—is gone.
I feel cold. I feel sad. I feel utterly empty inside. I still can’t believe that Gina lied to me. I can’t believe that I trusted her, that I’d given my heart to her, that I had felt something so real—and it hadn’t been.
I walk into the study and see my grandparents sitting there, looking old, gray, and decrepit for the first time. They look like life has sucked the sail out of their winds. And I’m sure I look the same.
“Thanks for joining us,” my grandmother says, standing and heading toward me to give me a hug, but I shake my head.
“Not right now, Grandma. I just?—”
She nods and sits back down, and my grandfather looks at me, his face despondent—something I have never seen before. I take a seat and lean back.
“I just don’t even know what to say, to be honest.” I look at both of them. “I suppose we need to decide what is happening with Amethyst.”
“We’ve already made that decision,” my grandfather says slowly.
“Oh.” I look at my grandmother, and she nods.
“I’m so sorry that you found out about Amethyst like that. I want you to know that I do feel guilty. And yes, in all honesty, I knew they were together when I met him.”
“It was unfortunate,” my grandfather adds. “Amethyst and I—we had young love. We had fun. And I may have told her things that young men do in the throes of passion. But when I met your grandmother, it was different.” He looks over at Enid, and she looks back at him. There’s something there. Not just hate. But I don’t understand. And I decide to tell them that. If I’m ever going to get the truth, this will be the moment.
“I don’t really understand what happened,” I say. “How… why… what?”
“What Amethyst likely didn’t tell you,” my grandfather says slowly, “is that we were young and in love, and we had liaisons with other people—sometimes together, sometimes on our own. We weren’t in a committed relationship. Did she think that perhaps one day we would marry? Perhaps. I don’t know. I was young, and my father came to me and said I had to grow up. I had to make hard decisions. I had a family name. I was a Waverly. I had to get married and have children. I had to produce an heir. And I met Enid. She was from the right family. She had royalty in her blood. She came with a dowry, even though we didn’t need the money. But she was of the class that my parents wanted.”
“And I fell for your grandfather,” my grandma says lightly. “He was handsome. He was fun. And I wanted to be the prettiest woman in the room. And Amethyst thought she was. There are times in life when we, as girls and boys, play games. And we want to win. I wanted to win your grandfather. And I did.” She looks sad at that admission. “But I didn’t really win because I knew they still had their thing. He told me she would always be in his life. He told me they would always be friends. And I didn’t care. Not really. Because I was going to become Mrs. Preston Waverly. I was the one everyone wanted to be. I didn’t feel guilty then. But do I feel guilty now? Yes. I’m not someone without emotion. We did fall in love, though. We had children. We had grandchildren. And we love you, Hunter. We love you. We had our ups and downs in our marriage. All marriages do. There were times I hated him. There were times I loved him. But I will say this—I did not stay because of the money. It was never about the money.” She looks over at my grandfather. “There were things about him that were absolutely perfect for me. And there were things about me that were absolutely perfect for him. I told Amethyst to keep the necklace,” she adds quietly.
