Page 97 of All for Love

“Yeah, except they didn’t find out. You told them. You went to them and dropped this massive bomb without any regard for how it was going to affect anyone else. You just didn’t want to sneak around anymore. That’s really all there is to it.”

“No, I mean, yes. I didn’t want to sneak around anymore, but I did this for us, Mercedes. I thought that if I went to them by myself, I would take the brunt of it so you wouldn’t have to.”

She shook her head again, her expression glum and miserable when she finally turned to look at me. “But you didn’t take the brunt of it. I did. I don’t know how it went with your dad, but I’ve never fought with my mom like this. She thinks I’m trying to sabotage her happiness. I hate that. I hate that she thinks I would ever do anything to sabotage her.” She released a shaky breath. “I don’t know how to make it right.”

“We will make it right. I promise. I don’t know how yet, but we will. Right now, this is the storm, but it will pass. We just have to stick together, figure it out together, and then face whatever they’ve got to throw at us together. We will get through this, Mercedes.”

Sadness sat heavily behind her eyes. More tears streaked down her cheeks. “No, Kody. I don’t think we will. Honestly, I don’t even think we should.”

My heart stammered and sweat broke out across my back. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I don’t think we should stick together. I don’t know what to do and I really don’t know how to make it right, but what I do know is that we’ve hurt our families. We’ve left a wave of destruction in our wake, and I don’t know if there’s any coming back from it, but we have to try.”

My jaw hardened and my chin jerked up. “You’re breaking up with me? Again?”

Her gaze came up to mine and she nodded. “If I could take back all the damage we’ve done, I would, but we can’t.”

“I wouldn’t take back anything.”

She gave me a tiny, sad smile. “I know, but that’s the problem. We’ve been selfish, and right now, you’re being naïve.”

“Excuse me?”

Mercedes wiped away more tears and pursed her lips. “Think of all the hurt we’ve caused. The fights we’ve had. The bonds we’ve damaged. Perhaps irreparably.”

“So? They’ll get over it.”

“Will we?” she asked quietly, more tears shimmering in her eyes as she swallowed hard. “I don’t know if I will, Kody. I’ve never given any thought to how it would feel to start a relationship with the man I’m meant to be with, but I don’t think this is it. The guilt, the shame, the hurt? This can’t be how it’s supposed to feel.”

My heart gave a dull thud. “The man you’re meant to be with?”

She nodded, then spun away from me again. “For just a minute there, I thought that man might be you, but now I realize this was never going to work. We’ve had our heads in the clouds since this thing started, with only brief periods of lucidity when we tried to end it before.”

“That’s not quite how I’d refer to it, but okay. I know you don’t want to do what you’re doing right now, Mercedes. Just stop, okay? If anyone ever asks, we can tell them that you tried to do the right thing and I wouldn’t let you.”

“You don’t have to let me. I’m doing it anyway. Deep down inside, I’ve known all along that I should’ve trusted my gut and ended it after the wedding night. Hell, I knew we should never have crossed that first line, but instead of trusting my instincts, I let you manipulate me into developing feelings for you that shouldn’t exist.”

The words couldn’t have hit me any harder if she’d whacked me with a cast-iron pan. I was so stunned that I knew why my dad hadn’t gotten any words out at first yesterday. I couldn’t seem to remember if I knew a language. Any language. Never mind the words that formed part of it.

For the longest time, I just stood there gaping at her. Like full-on, mouth open, jaw slack gaping. I couldn’t believe what she’d just accused me of. My throat suddenly felt tight, my mouth dry as bone. I stared into those green eyes and wondered if this was a Freaky Friday situation.

It was Saturday, sure, but had Margaux found a way to take over her daughter’s body? I swore that made more sense than what she’d just said.

“I didn’t manipulate you into anything, Mercedes. This is the first time in my effing life that I’ve been totally transparent and vulnerable with a woman. Is this really what I’m going to get for that?”

“Don’t pretend to be a victim here,” she said with a sharp, accusatory edge to her tone.

I stared back at her, blinking hard. I tried to force some spit into my mouth so it wouldn’t feel like the damn desert anymore. “You’re doing the same thing by putting the blame on me when both of us actively participated. Now I have no problem taking responsibility for where we are right now, but I sure as hell didn’t manipulate you to do things you didn’t want to do.”

We had a brief, tense standoff before she jerked her head at the door. “Leave, Kody. This is over. It should have been over before it started, but here we are. From here on out, we’re stepsiblings. Nothing more.”

I snorted. “Where have I heard that before?”

“Yeah, well, I mean it. We’ll get through Christmas and make things right, and we’ll never look back. This never happened.”

I had to be dreaming. Dreaming or Freaky Friday. Those were my options. Yet I wasn’t seeing any sign that Mercedes was changing back into Margaux or that Margaux had stuffed the real Mercedes into a closet or something.

And when I tried to form a fist with my broken hand, it hurt bad enough to confirm that I wasn’t dreaming. I left in a state of complete and total disbelief and in pain far worse than my crash injuries.

When I’d come here this morning, it had been to tell her that I was ready to fight for her. To go all the way. To give our relationship everything I had.

I hadn’t expected this. Not even a little bit. Not at all.