Page 52 of The Truth of Us

"What?" I barked.

His eyes opened slowly. A pained expression on his face when he said, "Tell me you aren't that stupid."

My temper flared immediately. "I didn't do anything wrong."

Theo made a choking sound, and Caleb laughed. Actually, fucking, laughed at me.

"The arrangement was over," I snapped, feeling the need to defend myself.

"The arrangement?" Caleb repeated.

"Yes."

"The arrangement with the woman who spent your birthday holding you together?"

I looked away and downed what was in my glass.

"The woman who brought you cake?" Caleb continued. "The woman who showed up when nobody else could get you to answer your phone?"

"Stop."

"The woman you wanted more from?" Caleb was relentless, and that panicked feeling was back in full force.

I stood abruptly, yelling, "I said stop."

Caleb wasn't impressed. "Your answer to wanting more from her was calling an old hookup?" The words landed like punches. One after another. But Caleb wasn’t done. "Then making sure Harper knew about it? Not only knew about it…" he paused, studying before shaking his head, saying, “You made sure she saw it?”

"That wasn't…"

"Intentional?" Caleb supplied.

I didn't answer. Because it had been. Not logically or in a way that made sense. But…

Caleb looked genuinely disgusted when he said, "You wanted this woman to stay."

I remained silent, but he did not. "You wanted a future with her."

I couldn’t answer, and Caleb continued, "You printed a new contract."

Theo's head snapped toward me. "What?"

Shit.

Caleb ignored him, his focus entirely on me when he said, "So your solution was to hurt her before she could hurt you."

The room went quiet.

Theo stared at me, then shook his head. "Huh."

"What?" I demanded, feeling worn out.

"I thought you liked her," he answered.

I scrunched up my brow because what did that have to do with anything? I looked down into my glass, saying, "I did… I do."

Theo scoffed, and it was such a harsh sound coming from him. "Hell of a way to show it."

Caleb and Theo left not long after ‌they realized I wasn’t willing to talk about Harper anymore.