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Tyler regarded me through the narrow opening, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression blank. I knew him well enough to recognize that the clenched jaw and the way his gaze kept sliding away from mine were telltale signs that he was nervous.
“Why doesn’t my key work?” I demanded. “And why is there a chain on the door?”
He met my gaze for less than a second before looking away again. “I changed the locks.”
“You changed the locks on my house!”
“You don’t need it. Get Daddy to buy you another one. Or better yet, he has a whole mansion you can move into.”
I laughed because what else could I possibly do in response to a statement like that? “You think I’m just going to gift you my house? The house containing all my furniture and possessions? The house you’ve never contributed a single penny toward? I didn’t even make you pay the bills.”
“Big deal,” Tyler said maliciously. “You don’t have to work and the allowance Daddy gives you for doing nothing is at least five times what I earn.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to give you any of it. Besides, you sponged off me for two years. Isn’t that enough?” A bitter laugh escaped me. “Oh, wait… Of course it isn’t. You wanted to fuck my best friend as well.”
A muscle twitched in Tyler’s cheek. “That wasn’t planned. It just happened.”
“What? You fell on his dick one day and decided it was a comfortable place to sit?”
“You were never here.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault.”
“You’ve been completely emotionally unavailable for the last few months. What was I supposed to do?”
“Well, I’m not a trained therapist, but I’m fairly certain the answer was to talk to me rather than start screwing someone else behind my back. Especially the one person you knew would hurt me the most.”
“I tried talking to you, but you were either too drunk, too high, or you refused to discuss anything.”
“Not true.”
Tyler had finally mustered the courage to make eye contact, and now he was glaring. “Very true. You changed, Rowan. I barely recognized you anymore.”
“Oh, pardon me for being upset that my mother was murdered.”
“It was unfortunate.”
Regret flashed across Tyler’s face almost before the final syllable left his mouth.
Fury tore through me so violently that my vision blurred at the edges. I no longer cared that we were standing on a public street where anyone could see or hear us.
“Unfortunate?” I grabbed the door and yanked, momentarily convinced sheer rage might give me the strength to snap the chain. It didn’t.
“Losing your phone is unfortunate. Spilling coffee on your laptop is unfortunate. So is missing a flight or burning dinner. My mother was murdered. That’s not unfortunate.”
“Calm down, Rowan. You’ll upset the neighbors.”
“They’re my fucking neighbors. Not yours.”
“There’s no talking to you when you’re like this.” Tyler tried to shut the door, but I wedged my foot into the gap before he could close it.
“Take the chain off.”
“No.”
“You can’t just take over my house.”
“You can’t just make me homeless.”
