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He reaches for my hand, his rough thumb grazing my knuckles. What does he want? The muscles in my back tense as I wait for his next move.
“I’ve always taken people for granted and disregarded them from my life. It’s easier not to deal with messy feelings, which is why I never fell in love before. I did that once with you, but when Thea became a part of us, I changed. At least, I thought I had changed until I saw you a few minutes ago.”
His blue eyes darken even more if that’s possible. “It’s not that I didn’t care or I’m selfish. I just focus my energy on my family.”
Unsteadied by his words and the beating of my heart, I try to move away, but he holds onto my wrist.
“We abandoned you,” he mumbles, hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand. “And I think you knew we wouldn’t give you a second glance after you called it off. You banked on my dismissal.”
“Move on and be happy,” I finally find my voice.
He scoffs and releases me. After pacing a few times around my office, he stops in front of the desk, lifting the frame I have next to the screen.
It’s one of my favorite pictures of us. The one at Christmas that Ainsley took of the three of us. Thea is in the middle. Matt and I are hugging her, and she’s hugging us. We kiss her right on the corner of her lips.
“When you said you were leaving because of your fucking hard limit I thought it meant that you couldn’t deal with the scandal.” He waves the frame. “Seeing Thea hurt is hard limit. You’d sacrifice anything and everything for her. What is it that you fear, your sister, the press?”
I lift a shoulder.
“At least give me some fucking answers, damn it!”
I tighten my jaw. “Did you read everything they posted about her? The way they talked about Thea? If I could help it, no one would talk like that about my sweet girl ever again. The public believed what you released. I was just a nobody, and you two are perfect together.”
He slams a hand on my desk. “You’re not a fucking nobody.”
Matt points at the picture. “That’s perfect. The three of us together is what makes us perfect. Without each other we’re just flawed people floating in the death sea. Not one of us has a goal, a destination.”
“I did it—”
“You did it because of love, but you fucking destroyed us, Cooperson.”
In everyone’s mind, I’m the fucking asshole who left them. Or at least, that’s how I made them feel. I fucked it up. It doesn’t matter, but it does, because they aren’t happy.
“It wasn’t about sacrifices or being a martyr. Your happiness is my own happiness,” I clarify.
“Well, you fucking failed because I’m miserable. You think you’ve done us some sort of valiant favor, but you haven’t.” He leaves my office without giving me a second glance.
I sit and stare at my once-again closed door and try to ignore the crushing feeling in my chest. I should be used to it by now.
No, not even an exorcism could remove them from my soul and heart.
You can’t stop loving the loves of your life, not when they are what keeps your heart beating.
They altered me, changed me to my very core, and I’ve become a better version of myself because of them. A version I never envisioned would exist, but for months it became real. I feel a strong and sudden need to apologize to them, to become a selfish bastard and forget what trouble being in a triad will bring to Thea.
But they won’t even give me a second chance.
ChapterFifty
Tristan
“Are you okay, kid?”Chris enters my office a few minutes after Matthew leaves.
I nod.
“Have I ever told you about the time I realized I was in love with my husband and left him?” He takes a seat on the leather couch. “I had never been in love in my entire life.”
He takes off his jacket and places it next to him. “Fucking suits, I hate them.”
