And why the hell does that hurt so much?
Because shedoesknow you. She just wanted to pretend you were better; you were good enough…
Now she can’t pretend any more, because you slapped it in her face.
Which means this… the baby… us…
It’s over.
‘Because it was you, wasn’t it?’
Her quiet accusation spears through the pain trying to consume me from the inside.
‘Whatever happened,’ I say carefully, desperately, ‘he did it to himself.’
The words taste like ash. Because I know how much pressure it takes to make a man like Danny crack. A man who onlypreys on those smaller than him, weaker than him. Like Sadie. Like Lottie.
Put him in front of someone who fights back and suddenly, he’s not so big. Not so brave. Until hehasto fight back – and accidents happen.
Whether I meant him dead or not doesn’t change a damn thing.
It was me.
‘With a nudge?’ she presses. Not angry now. Afraid. Afraid of me. Fuck, no. My chest roars with it as I close the distance and clutch her face in my hands. Her hazel eyes flare up at me, choking up my airways, icing up my blood.
‘What did you expect, Tay?’ I shake my head, furious at her, at me, at this. ‘That I’d let him get away with it? Let him waltz off to prison for a few years and be done with it?’
Her eyes shimmer but she says nothing and my desperation builds.
‘HecrushedSadie. HehatedLottie. And he got to you –you!’
My eyes rake over her as the pain consumes me all over again: of Danny hurting her then, of her hurting me now. My fingers tremble against her face. Soft warm skin, still as stone.
‘Did you really think I’d let that slide?’ It scrapes out of me, raw and unfiltered.
She sucks in a shuddering breath, fingers curling around my wrists. Not pulling me away, but she ain’t pulling me in either.
‘You didn’t let it slide. You handed him to the police.’
‘And do you know what that cost me?’ My voice cracks. ‘Bad enough for Theo to have to stand back, but me? Ifight. It’s what I do.’
‘No,’ she says. ‘You protect. There’s a difference.’
‘Not when it comes to the people I love.’
The second the word leaves my mouth, everything stops.
Her breath. Mine. The air between us.
It’s not the word itself. She knows I love them.
It’s the way it came out.
The part meant for her alone.
‘Taylor, I?—’
‘Ax?’ Sadie’s soft voice cuts through the air like a knife.
