Page 145 of Threaded Lies

“Don’t Rowan me.” She yanks her arm out of reach from me, and we stand staring at each other. I’ve been found out and it’s way too fucking early in my timeline of events for this to be known.

My guard goes up. That wall I’ve built around me, the one I’ve let her deconstruct brick by fucking brick, goes back up in an instant. The suit of armor I’ve worn for so goddamn long, the one I took off for her, now suddenly feels like it doesn’t fit anymore.

But I don’t have a choice.

I put it on. I suffer through the stifling suffocation it feels like. And I prepare for battle—because that’s the only thing I know how to do.

“You did all this for what? To turn a profit? To make a shit ton of money? To—”

“That and more.” I shrug nonchalantly, trying to ignore the wedding dress hanging a few feet away. Telling myself this never could have been, so why act like it’s something I’d entertain.

“It’s like you have this vendetta against me. Against my family. To make it hurt the most and make us suffer as much as possible. Only sick fucks find joy in other people’s pain.”

I force a swallow over the acrid taste in my mouth. “We all have our reasons, Sunshine.” Her nickname is laced with sarcasm that I don’t feel in the least.

“Reasons? Reasons?” she screeches. “What about fucking the person you’re trying to screw over? What about letting them fall in love with you when all you are is lies? Is that your reason? Are those your reasons? What about—You know what, I…” She holds her hands up as her voice breaks. The sound almost brings me to my knees. “I’ve been hurt enough. I’m done.”

I stand before her, stone-faced, while concertina wire tightens around my heart.

She doesn’t know the truth about Mason.

She hasn’t connected my past to her brother and Chad.

That’s the endgame.

Those secrets need to stay close to the vest.

Those secrets are why I came here.

I’ve dealt with pain way worse than this before.

I can handle this. No fucking problem.

SIXTY-THREE

Rowan

I stand looking at a man I’m in love with while knowing I’m about to marry another.

One is wrong for me. One will give me what I need.

One makes me feel alive—even now. And the other doesn’t make me feel anything.

My chest hurts so badly, and all I keep thinking is I can’t cry. I can’t mess up my makeup because it wouldn’t be fair to my makeup artist to have to redo it after all her hard work.

That and it’s so much easier to think about my fucking makeup than it is to think about how much my heart surged in my chest when I heard Holden’s voice on the other side of that door.

Every little girl dreams of the man coming to save her from making the mistake.

Too bad that as much as I want Holden Knight, he is also the mistake.

But I have one more question to ask before I can let this go. One more nail to put in the coffin my heart resides in.

“Do you love me, Holden?” I whisper, my voice getting stronger with each word. “Were you actually falling for me or did you say that, imply that, just so I’d give you every part of me so you could break me all over again?”

His jaw clenches and his nostrils flare but he doesn’t respond.

“You want to know why I was going to marry Chad? Why I stayed the course? Because I must have known you were too goddamn good to be true. And lookee here. With your lies and your deception and your plans, the only thing you did was prove me right.”