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“Yes,” Scarlet said as she seamlessly drifted her hands across my shoulders and down my trembling arms until she was pulling my hands away from the places I’d been holding onto.
Keeping myself grounded.
Once she had her fingers laced through mine, she said, “It’s the easiest way to find out since we don’t know for sure. Because if I’m wrong...”
“You aren’t wrong,” I said through clenched teeth.
Her eyes snapped to mine and widened. “Is that what just happened?” she asked, voice a whisper. “Did you remember something about her?”
My head moved just enough to let her know it hadn’t had anything to do with Litany. “But they need to leave.”
“We are,” Brandon said quickly, clapping my shoulder as he headed around the island. “Konrad and I will be here when Litany comes over,” he added when Bree continued staring at all of us in shock. “Happy?”
“Fine.” Bree grabbed the last of her things and blew kisses our way as she hurried through the kitchen. “Love you both the most!”
“If Litany doesn’t bake something to make up for the fact that we have to deal with her...” Brandon gave an irritated grunt as he turned, still backing up out of the kitchen when he asked, “You gonna be good?”
I just nodded and repeated, “Out.”
Once he rounded the corner into the entryway, I looked at Scarlet. My heart hammering as we waited until we were alone.
Her eyebrows twisted up in worry as she pressed herself closer to me and tightened her hold on my hands. Because, even though she didn’t know, she seemed to sense that what I’d just remembered was something big.
As soon as the front door shut behind them, Scarlet asked, “What happened?”
But I simply held her there.
Studying her for a moment longer before I pulled her close. Wrapping one set of our joined hands around her back and keeping her against me as I lifted our other hands to her chin. Tipping her head back to brush my mouth across hers in a ghost of an apology.
“I love you,” I whispered before pressing another soft kiss to her lips.
Her entire spirit seemed to tremble at my words.
“Chase.” Worry fueled my name and lingered between us. “Chase, you’re scaring me. What do you remember?”
“Because this is real,” I said, grief weighing down the words as if everything was happeningright thenand not years before. “Finding out I’m gonna be a dad and having it ripped away.”
I knew the second she realized I was talking aboutusand not the fake life my mind had created. Felt it in the way a little jolt went through her body before it locked up completely. Saw it in the old pain that lined her eyes.
“We’d just found out you were pregnant before it happened,” I said, my head moving in the faintest nod as understanding washed through me. “It’s why you don’t know what happened the last time I saw your ex.”
“I have an idea,” she said, voice soft and filled with a heavy sadness.
I continued nodding as I stole one last kiss before pressing my forehead to hers. Letting everything I’d just seen, everything I could remember with vivid clarity, replay again and again.
The unexpected shock of finding out Scarlet was pregnant just a month after she’d first moved in with me. Something neither of us had questioned because, even though her mind had kept her from choosing between us for too damn long, I’d known exactly who her heart and body had belonged to. Whose bed she’d been in, even before she’d finally left her ex.
Our unrestrained excitement that had quickly overwhelmed every other thought and emotion.
And a few nights later, the way she’d looked when she’d come home from working at the physical therapy clinic she loved so much. Trembling. Sobbing. Unable to speak or even look at me as she’d gone straight for the bathroom, holding her ripped shirt close to her chest.
It’d taken hours before she’d broken. Crying from where she’d been curled into a ball in our bed and confessing everything as ifshe’ddone something wrong. As if her ex and his cousin keeping her tied to one of the therapy tables and raping her had beenher fault.
She’d started bleeding the next morning.
The doctor hadn’t been sure if it was the stress of what’d happened or if it was something already set into motion. Whatever the reason, we’d only had five days before that unrestrained excitement was torn away. Twisted into a devastation so whole and absolute.
That night, I’d waited until Scarlet was asleep before calling Brandon. He hadn’t hesitated, not that I’d expected him to.
