“It didn’t seem relevant?—”
“Are you kidding me now?” I huff out a laugh that twists into a snarl. “You don’t think that’s something you should’ve mentioned? At any point?”
“Why?” Her voice rises to match mine. “Why does it matter? Money doesn’t change who I am.”
“It changes everything!” I’m shouting now, I can’t help it. “Damn it, Faye. I told you—” I have to stop. Force air into my lungs. “I told you trust was everything to me. That after Abigail, after what she did, I couldn’t?—”
“This isn’t the same thing?—”
“The hell it isn’t!” My cheeks are burning. My chest feels like it’s caving in. “You’ve been lying since the day we met. Makes me wonder what else was a lie.” I turn away, fury crawling under my skin.
“That’s not fair,” she says, and now her voice is shaking. “You said it yourself, you assumed I had family money. Was it only okay if it came from a trust fund? Or since it comes from my work, from something I built, you?—”
“Don’t.” I cut her off as my face grows hotter. “Don’t you dare turn this around. The way you made your money isn’t the fucking problem.”
“Then what is?”
“The lying!” The accusation rips out of me.
“I didn’t lie!”
“You might as well have.” My voice cracks. “You were the first person I let in. The first person I trusted. The first woman I’ve?—”
I stop myself before I say love. Because how can I love someone I don’t even know?
“And you’ve been lying to me this entire time.”
28
FAYE
“And you’ve been lying to me this entire time.” The words carve a hole inside my chest. But not as much as the hurt and disappointment behind Ryder’s angry expression.
“I didn’t lie,” I shout again, frustration taking over. “I just—I didn’t tell you everything.”
“That’s the same damn thing, Faye.” He spits my name like it tastes rotten. “You think you’re getting off on a technicality? Even if you weren’t outright lying, you certainly didn’t trust me with that part of your life.”
“It wasn’t about trusting you?—”
“Then what was it about?”
The question sizzles between us. I open my mouth. Close it. Because what can I say? That I was scared? That the last person I trusted destroyed me?
None of it will matter. Not now.
“It’s complicated,” I whisper.
He scoffs.
Actually scoffs down at me.
The sound cuts deeper than anything else he’s said.
“Yeah.” His voice turns bitter. “I know how uncomfortable it is to share. I was the one calling you at night, crying. Baring my fucking soul to you. Sharing the darkest, most hurtful parts of my past. Showing you all my open wounds and ugly scars.”
Each truth slaps me in the face, impossible to deny.
“While you comfortably sat on all your secrets.”
