Page 127 of The Image of You

He stared at me as if I was dense. “I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you, Alexandra.”

I shook my head at his matter-of-fact tone. As if that made everything he did all right.

“I didn’t love you, though. I told you that over and again. You knew I was in love with Adam. Why would you do this? It’s almost criminal!”

“I tried everything else. I thought if I gave you time and space, you’d come to your senses. I even pretended to date other women to get you to agree to my idea. When I convinced you to pretend in front of Sarah and Ronald, I thought we were finally on our way to being a couple.” He sneered at Adam. “Until you met him.”

“So sorry to have fucked up all your plans,” jeered Adam. “How inconvenient for you. When you couldn’t have her, you decided to manipulate her? That’s how you think love works?”

“You’re such a smug bastard, aren’t you?” Bradley spat.

Adam shrugged. “Think what you want. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me. Only hers does.”

Bradley glowered at us. “I’m not so sure her opinion is exactly reliable these days.”

“Bastard,” Adam roared, and he moved so fast, I had no time to react. His fist shot out, slamming into Bradley’s jaw, while he rammed his other hand into his stomach. Bradley fell to the floor, gasping.

Adam stood over him, panting. “Don’t you dare say another derogatory word about her. Not one fucking word, you hear me?”

“Adam!” I pleaded, clutching at my head. “Stop!”

He looked up, his stance relaxing, and he stepped away from Bradley. “Don’t you say shit about her. You haven’t helped the situation with her memory—feeding her lies all the time.”

Bradley slowly got to his feet, holding his stomach. “I guess I can’t argue with that.” He rubbed his jaw. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

Adam huffed. “You deserve worse.”

Bradley eased himself down onto the sofa, his gaze finding mine. “I’m sorry, Alexandra.”

“Did you think this was going to work, Bradley? That we’d get married, I’d never remember, and we’d—what—live happily ever after? Do you have any real remorse for tricking me?”

“I thought it would work. You’d marry me, and I could make you happy. Our parents would be happy too.”

I was shocked at his words. “You think our marriage would have worked? A relationship based on a lie?”

“You could have loved me. Once we were settled and away from here, you would have loved me. I knew even if you remembered him—” he indicated Adam with a jerk of his chin “—you would have realized I was a much better man for you.”

“Because you would have let me think he walked away from me. You would have added yet another lie.”

“I would have done whatever it took to keep you.”

“Are you out of your mind? That isn’t love. That’s twisted and sick. I’m not a possession—something you bought and have the right to keep.”

“I was protecting you.”

I shook my head in disbelief. He acted as if he was doing me a favor. Behind me, Adam cursed, and I held up my hand. I didn’t want him to start beating on Bradley again. “Explain that to me.”

“You were swept away by him. Not thinking straight. He’s not the man you need. I can give you stability and take care of you.”

I shook my head, feeling the anger build. “No, Bradley. For the first time in my life, I was thinking straight. And I am not a child. I do not need to be ‘taken care of,’ or at least your version of what that means.”

He stared at me, frowning, as if he was trying to understand what I had said. He stood. “Well, I guess that’s it then, isn’t it? You’ve obviously made up your mind.”

“It’s over, Bradley. Not that there was anything real about it.” With a shaking hand, I held out his ring. “This belongs to you. I don’t want it.”

With a muttered curse, he took the ring, looking at the large stone. His eyes fell on my left hand, growing wider as he took in the new ring on my finger. He glared at Adam. “You didn’t waste any time, did you, asshole?”

“We were already engaged before this happened.” Adam snapped. “Her ring was being sized.”