Page 165 of Where Roads Lead

“It’s always been you and Matthew.”

“Matthew was always my best friend. You were the one I loved.”

The one I still love. The one I always will.

“Tell me right now you never felt anything for me.” Traitorous tears streamed down my face. “There were times I know you did.”

“Ava,” he said, taking a step toward me, eyes finally alive with emotion I used to crave to see him staring at me with.

But it wasn’t love burning passionately in his eyes, finally proving he was capable of feeling after all.

It was hate.

“You are going to go out there and marry him, like you told him you would. Like you promised.”

“I—” I started. I can’t. I can’t.

“If you do this to my brother, if you walk out on him now, I’ll never forgive you.”

And then I would lose both of them. And the Hughes as well. I would be losing all the family I had in one fell swoop.

And selfish or not, I just couldn’t bear it.

So I did it.

With lead feet and a pit in my stomach and the strangest feeling in my chest that told me, even as Matthew smiled at me from the other end of the aisle, I was betraying him in some inexcusable way, I married him.

But it didn’t matter.

Because Will never forgave me anyway.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Elsie

Iguess I’d been staring at her agape because by the time Ava finished, my mouth felt dry and useless, and at any rate, utterly incapable of forming any response that might do her story justice.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” she asked, folding her arms over herself self-consciously.

“Probably,” I said, processing it all. “I mean, yes. I mean, wow.”

She snorted.

“You probably think I’m a complete idiot, don’t you?” she asked. “Or at the very least, a raging bitch.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t. I just feel sad for you.”

“I lost a few years sulking in that feeling myself,” she said. “And it was a complete and utter waste of time.”

“Did Matthew ever…know?”

“No,” she said quickly. “God, no. No one ever did, except Will and I.”

I nodded, but my question unnerved her. She shifted in her seat, leaning forward as her eyes widened.

“It wasn’t a bad life, what Matthew and I had. I loved him the best I could. I loved him with my whole heart. He really was my best friend.”

“But didn’t you think you deserved the love you dreamed of?”