He shakes his head, looking down at his bare feet. I reach for him, but he shrugs me away, and I drop my hands to my sides.
“I need you to let me go, Oliver.” His words are barely audible, a soft, sorrow-filled plea. “Let me go, please.”
“Not without a bloody explanation!”
Fear and hurt whir into anger, and I clench my hands into tight fists.
Darius doesn’t look at me when he delivers the blow that destroys my world.
“There’s someone else.”
No.
“You’re lying!” He has to be. This can’t be real. “No. Iaskedyou. I asked you if you were seeing someone else and you said no.”
Finally, he looks up. “I lied.” Those two words cut like a knife.
“When? We’re always together.” I shake my head. “I don’t believe you.”
“You have to, Ollie, because it’s true. We can’t do this anymore. I’m so sorry.”
He cheated. I’m not enough for him. It was all a big fucking lie. The pain is too much to bear, so I do the only thing I know how to do to protect myself. I put up my walls.
“Get out.”
Darius opens his mouth to speak, but I turn away and march into the lounge. I pick up his coat from the back of the sofa and throw it at him.
“Get the fuck out of my house.”
He moves slowly through the flat, and I breathe through the anguish as he picks up the penguin I made him.
“I really am sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.” Darius opens the door and steps out.
“And yet you did. I fucking trusted you, Darius. Even though I knew this would happen because it always does, I thought you were different. But you’re not. I fucking hate you.”
With that, I slam the door and crumple to the floor, my heart in shattered ruins.
Chapter 22
Darius
I’m a liar. That’s who I am now.
I lied to Caiden when he called me a few days after my birthday – after I’d made the deal with Floyd. I’d put on my most convincing voice when I told him I went on another date set up by my father and then told him that Oliver and I were nothing more than a casual hookup. The lie tasted bitter on my tongue – but what choice did I have? I’m going to tell my best friend that in less than two months, I’m marrying a man he’s never heard of. And I’ll need him to believe it’s real. There’s too much riding on this sham marriage. In the moment, it felt like the easiest thing to do was to downplay my feelings for Oliver and try to get Caiden to believe that nothing has changed in my dating life. I don’t know that he believed me, especially since his parting words were to warn me that someone was going to end up getting hurt.
If only he knew how true his words turned out to be.
Not only did lying to Caiden make me feel physically ill, the ache from what I did to Oliver has me barely able to function. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. Breathing feels like a chore. I know in my heart that he would never have let me go, not if he knew the truth, so I did the only thing I could think to do – pushed him away with the force of his fear of rejection. The look on his face will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I hate myself for all of it.
I sent him a message after, telling him how sorry I am, but it remains undelivered. I can only presume he’s blocked my number.
As for my father, I haven’t spoken to him in the two weeks since he tore my world to shreds. I could have been selfish and said no. Could have watched Floyd destroy him – and I have no doubt the guy would have done just that. But at the end of the day, my father is the only family I have, so there was never really a choice.
The sins of the father and all that.
I must be staring off into space again, because I startle, my muscles jerking to awareness when a pile of hideous orange cards lands on the table in front of me.
