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“I know what happened is fucking weird. And Nate and I had to talk about it because you wouldn’t talk about it with us.”
“I just don’t know what to say. It’s ridiculous, the whole premise or–god, I don’t even know what it is.”
I swallow. “I need to know about what happened.” It comes out unrepentant and clear, but a definite non sequitur.
Laney quirks her head to the side. “What happened?”
“Why you didn’t trust me.”
She pales.
“Why you thought I would…do that to you.”
Laney’s eyes drop from mine. “Mason, it’s complicated.”
“It’s not. It’s really not.”
“I thought you cheated on me.”
That’s a knife to heart. “But I didn’t. I wouldn’t”
“I–”
“I didn’t cheat on you! I told you I didn’t. And you didn’t believe me even though I was–” There are tears forming in my eyes. “God, I was obsessed with you, Laney. I loved you. I wanted to marry you. I thought we would be together forever. Why would I cheat on you?”
Laney shakes her head. “Mason, you didn’t hear me. I said Ithoughtyou cheated on me.”
I blink at her.
“I know that you didn’t.”
I feel faint. Like my knees might give out, and I’ll collapse on the dirty New York sidewalk. “You know that I didn’t?”
Laney grabs my hand and yanks me across the street and into Central Park where she places me on a bench. Thank god she takes control because I’m walking in a dream.
She sits beside me, takes a breath, and then begins again: “I had good reason to think you were cheating on me.”
“Good reason?” My voice is barely a whisper.
“Photos.” There is anguish on her face. “There were photos.”
My lips contort in disgust. “How can there be photos if I never did anything?”
“Photoshop.”
I let that sink in. “What…who…?”
“Someone I was friends with. Thought I was friends with. Jules. Remember her?”
It’s a vague memory. Perhaps someone who was with her that night at Lyons Club when I met Laney. Someone who came around from time to time. Maybe redhead. Feels so far away now…
“She wanted you,” Laney says. “And everyone knew. Everyone but me, really.”
I shake my head. “I had no idea…”
“Right. I know that now. But back then? There were so many little things that people pointed out, and it just seemed to make sense. On top of the photographic evidence.” Her eyes flutter closed. “Or what Ithoughtwas photographic evidence.”
“So, you had these pictures–”
