Page 77 of Unrequited Sloth

Her eyes widened as she looked at the photographs. Dillon looked over her shoulder, his jaw clenched, and he snatched them off her and ripped them up.

“You two are really desperate if you need to fake this shit. You’re the one who fucked your fiancé’s brother like some pervert. This is the same as the voice recording. All bullshit.”

“I won’t ask you again to watch your language in this house,” said Mr M.

Alex wasn’t saying anything. She was in shock, which wasn’t surprising, as the photos had shown Dillon cheating on her with five other women. They had more evidence than pictures. Daniel’s guy was very thorough, and he’d found everything.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Alex, her voice breaking and tears rolling down her face. These weren’t her usual fake tears either. “Haven’t you caused me enough pain, Gabriel, by marrying my fiancé? Now you want to destroy the fact that I’ve found some happiness as well. You always wanted Bobby. I saw you looking at him, and now you’ve got him. Why do you have to destroy what I have as well?”

Gabriel looked close to tears. Even though Alex was the one completely in the wrong, Gabriel would always want her to be happy. That’s the sort of person he was, and from what he’d learnt, not just over the past few weeks but in the two years Bobby had seen them interact as siblings, he would often do something he didn’t want to, or go against what he believed was right, just to make her happy. She knew that and used that kindness against him.

“Mr M, can I have the other photos, please?”

He was going off script, but Mr M seemed on board as he passed the envelope to him. Bobby took out the other photos. There would be no way they could say these were faked, and he hoped they would sow a seed of doubt in Alex’s mind.

“These photos are proof that you two have been together since last year. There’s one of you both kissing at the Halloween party,” he said, holding it up. “Here you are on romantic dates, holding hands. These are you coming out of Dillon’s flat late at night, which aligns with the dates you said you were working late. And these are your text messages to each other, which include nude photos, and some messages which I wouldn’t allow your parents to read.”

“How did you get those?” she asked, snatching them from Bobby. “This is an invasion of privacy.” She looked mad.

“So, these aren’t faked, then? Just an invasion of privacy.”

“I . . . no, that’s not what I’m saying. They’re obviously fake.”

“Okay, well, if that’s not you in the pictures, your dad can look at them.”

He took the pictures back off her and walked towards Mr M, with no intention of giving them to him, but it was enough for Alex to crack.

“Please don’t give them to my dad, Bobby,” she broke down. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I cheated on you. I just couldn’t marry you. I couldn’t be the wife you wanted me to be. I’m not ready to settle down, and you wanted a house and kids; I just couldn’t do it. The closer the wedding got, the harder it was to call things off.”

“You could have talked to me. I would have been hurt, but I’d have understood. You didn’t have to sleep with my best friend, and then blame everything on your brother.”

“But you two were having an affair as well. Dillon saw you kissing. He said Gabriel chased you and wore you down.”

“Dillon lied to you,” said Gabriel. “I’ll be honest and say I had a crush on him from the first day you introduced us, but I would never have acted on it, even if Bobby had expressed interest. You’ve known me your whole life, Alex. Could you ever imagine me doing something like that to anyone, let alone my own sister?”

She shook her head. “But why did you get married?”

“A drunken mistake. That’s all it was. We didn’t even think it was legally binding until we got home and saw the marriage certificate. Neither of us can remember it. We were that drunk.”

“But you’re together now, aren’t you?”

“For all of two weeks. That note you took, which referenced our ‘first date,’ was because that’s what we were about to have.”

“Oh, I didn’t pick up on that.”

“This is fucking bullshit,” said Dillon.

Bobby had forgotten he was there for a moment. Mr M looked angry, but then he had warned Dillon about swearing in his home.

“Come on, Alex, we’re leaving.”

“I want to stay and talk to my family.”

“You don’t believe all their lies, do you? It’s all fake.”

“That isn’t,” she said, pointing at the photos and text messages Bobby was holding. “I need to think about the rest.”

“You need to come with me now, or we’re done. Pick a side.”