Langston looks at me with a sad expression, knowing that we must have had a huge fight from how devastated both of us look.
She passes the rolling tray to me, and I push it, stepping into Cassie's room.
She's sitting on her bed, hugging her knees.
Tears are rolling down her cheeks as she cries softly. My eyes widen as I stare at her broken form.
Cassie startles when she finds me walking in. She straightens up, pushing her back against the headboard.
My heartbeat increases rapidly the closer I get to her. I always have this kind of feeling every time I'm around her, like a lovesick fool.
Despite how many years have passed, she's still the same Cassie who took my breath away. The same girl who almost died just to return my brother's coat, who let me kiss her all night and who broke into tears when I left her.
My whole body is on alert as I see how much she’s been crying. Her eyes are filled with pain and disappointment as she looks at me.
That look stabs my heart like a knife.
What have I done to her?
Fuck. I made her cry. I hurt her.
"Cassie." My voice is shaking when I finally realize how much I’ve hurt her.
"You're just the same as everybody else," she rasps. "You neverbelieve me. In your eyes, I'm still the nation's whore." Her tears keep flowing.
It feels like her words just ripped my heart apart.
At this very moment, the sight before me makes me see that she wasn’t lying.
But why did I have to break her apart first to see all of that?
I couldn't take it when she glorified that fucking bastard ex-boyfriend of hers, even just for a split second. It was enough to make me beyond livid, to the point that I didn’t believe her.
But now that I see her crying, tears streaming down her face, saying how heartbroken she is from hearing how I judged her wrongly, I know that she's not covering anything.
She didn't betray me.She didn't cheat on me.
"No matter what I said, you wouldn't believe me," she cries. "Whatever I said, you wouldn't trust me. That hurts me, Luke, to the core. It hurts me to know that you think of me as that kind of woman." She chokes.
I freeze.
I didn't trust her. I didn't want to hear her out. I was too consumed by rage.
What have I done? I'm her husband. I should have listened to her when nobody else wanted to.
She stares at me. "Now do you believe me?" Her voice is a broken whisper.
"Cassie," I rasp. "I do. I do believe you now."
She breaks into tears and shakes her head. I know that I've messed up big time. I should have believed her from the start. Not like this.
I'm fucking ashamed of myself.
"Cassie," I whisper, trying to lean closer and touch her face.
"No." She slaps my hand away. "Leave me alone." Her voice is hoarse, her lips trembling.
Still, I don't move from the bed. Another sob breaks from her, and it shatters my heart.
