Page 42 of Secrets on Ice

I bury my face against him. “They’ve been together since high school.”

My brother goes completely still.

Behind us, the front door opens. I feel Emmett turn.

“No,” I whisper, gripping his shirt. “You promised.”

His entire body is rigid beneath my hands. “I won’t,” he grumbles.

“We’re done,” Cassidy tells her brother.

Sully looks down at her. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

Emmett looks at me, and I nod. He holds me tighter. “Okay. Let’s go.”

No judgment. No questions. Just loyalty, something neither of our husbands understand. We climb back into the SUV, leaving the house and the men we married behind us.

This time, I don’t look back.

10

EMBER

Nobody speaks as Emmett pulls away from the house. I stare out the window, watching the home I shared with Kevin disappear behind us. My chest hurts, my head is pounding, and my entire body feels like I’ve run a marathon. Cassidy sits beside me, holding my hand. She hasn’t let go since we climbed into the SUV.

Suddenly, Sully twists around from the front seat. “They’ve been messing around since high school?”

Cassidy nods.

“What the fuck?” he growls. “I never suspected a thing?”

“Me either,” Emmett adds.

Seeing as we all went to the same high school, they would know.

“They said it was on and off,” I tell him.

“As if that makes it better,” Cassidy adds bitterly.

Emmett’s hands tighten around the steering wheel. “They married you knowing they were messing around with each other?”

“They said they were confused,” I explain.

“They thought marrying us would make the feelings go away,” Cassidy says.

Sully turns back around toward the road, shaking his head. “Fucking cowards.”

“I told them that,” I mumble.

“What else did they say?” Emmett asks.

“That they loved us too.” I scoff.

The car falls silent again. Even saying the words out loud makes me angry.

“They loved us as their best friends. They loved the lives we built, but they were always in love with each other,” Cassidy says as she starts crying again, and I give her hand a squeeze.