A few minutes later she heard the door slam and footsteps stalk back into the bedroom. She lifted her head and smiled sleepily at Ethan, coming sharply awake when she saw his cold, blank eyes. His face was white, with stark red blotches along his neck, and his fists were clenched tightly at his sides.
She sat up, adrenaline flooding her body as her Shadows coiled. “Ethan? God, what’s happened?”
He didn’t look at her as he spoke. “I’d like you to go. Now.”
“What?” She swung her legs out of the bed, holding the sheet against her body. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t lie to me.” He folded his arms over his chest, eyes trained on the carpet. “I can’t… I need you to get out of my bed and go.”
“But Ethan—”
He shook his head, but he still wouldn’t look at her. “Don’t. Just don’t. Get dressed and leave.”
Tears clogged in her throat and she lifted a hand to her face, trying to hold herself together. It was as if she was in a fairground tunnel, with noise and colors all around her, but none of it formed words or pictures. Everything was jumbled and chaotic.
“Ethan,” she whispered. “Please. I don’t understand. Please just tell me what’s happening.”
“You’re a liar. And a cheat. I’m sorry I ever met you.”
She gasped. “A liar? A cheat? I don’t understand. Who was at the door?”
“You know who. Or did you conveniently forget that you have a fiancé?”
“A fiancé? What fiancé?”
“James.”
“James is my fiancé?”
“Exactly!”
“No!” She shivered helplessly. Shock and devastation flooded her as her Shadows flailed. “I was asking a question! It wasn’t a statement. It doesn’t… that doesn’t—”
Her tears spilled over, running down her face in hot streams and she wiped them away with her fingers.
“Let me clarify it for you,” Ethan snarled. “James, who you lied to and told you were going to Wales, came to see me to tell me that you have been lying to me all this time. He felt that he should let me know that you’re engaged, your wedding date set for the autumn. He realized that you’ve been under a lot of strain recently and he wanted to stop you from making a mistake that you would regret. But he was too late, wasn’t he? The mistake is already made.”
Kay could hear the words, but they might as well have been in a different language. “I still don’t understand.”
Ethan finally raised his eyes to look at her. “What is there to understand? You cheated on your fiancé. With me. God. How could I have been so stupid? So fucking stupid!”
Nausea churned through her and she swallowed away the acid. “James told you this?”
“Yes. He’s just been showing me photos from your engagement party. God.” Ethan rubbed a shaking hand down his bone-white face.
“But it’s not true!”
His voice lowered. “Why should I believe anything you say? I was here, Kay, when he called you asking why you hadn’t slept in your bed. How would he know that? Huh? If he didn’t also sleep there?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but Ethan cut her off. “He has photos of you together, cuddling and laughing, you kissing his cheek, drinking champagne…. God. He even has one of you, naked, swimming in a lake. He showed me your fucking ring—you know, the one you left on your bedside table.”
Ethan closed his eyes, as if to block out the images, and then shook his head, wrapping his hands around the back of his neck. “You’ve never introduced me to anyone, everything we’ve done has been kept secret. You forget, Kayleigh, I’ve been the man on the other side ofexactly this situation.”
Kay swallowed, trying to make her voice work. “Of course there are photos, I’ve known James for half of my life, but it doesn’t mean—”
Ethan took a step back, lowering his hands and shoving them in his pockets. “I don’t want to hear it. All I want is for you to go.”
“Please, just listen to me—”
