AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course. Let me get the car back.” She got on her phone and began demanding a quick response.
Gavin looked hurt, and I couldn’t deal with any of this. I couldn’t even think about it until I knew that my dad would be all right.
“Whitley,” he said again.
“Don’t,” I repeated. “Please don’t.”
“We have to talk about this.”
“About what?” I asked, suddenly just as angry as my dad had been. “He’s right. He’s right about all of it. We lied to him. We lied to basically everyone from the beginning. Your family. My family. It was all a lie.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“Don’t tell me what I fucking believe,” I growled as those pesky tears came to line my lids again.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Didn’t you? I’m just supposed to feel exactly how you want me to feel at any given moment?”
“Whit,” he groaned. “Come on. It’s not about this.”
“What is it about?”
“I don’t know,” he snapped and then sighed heavily. “Safia.”
I froze at that word. My head swiveled to him in shock. “What about Safia?”
“You sure it’s not about her being in your apartment last night?” he asked, his voice hard.
I shuddered. “How do you know that?”
He chuckled sardonically and took a step back, shaking his head all the while. “The question is … why didn’tyoutell me?”
“It’s complicated.”
“And she didn’t get in your head?”
She had. She had absolutely gotten in my head. But not the way he thought. And right now, I was so furious with everything happening that I couldn’t even see straight.
“If you knew she was there, why didn’tyousay anything?”
“I thought you’d tell me yourself.”
I scrubbed my face with my hands. The light makeup I’d put on earlier was now a hot mess. “We’re so fucked up, Gavin. I sent Safia away, but none of that even matters. It started as a lie.” I swallowed. “None of this was ever real anyway.”
He stepped forward. “What if it was real to me?”
“It wasn’t. We wouldn’t be standing here right now if it was.”
“That’s not true.” He reached for me again. “Whit …”
“My dad could bedyingright now. He’s in the hospital. And he’s pissed that we lied to him. We did that. If he dies tonight, then it’ll be my fault.” The tears ran freely down my face. “So … nothing else matters. The wedding is off.”
Then, I pushed past him and out of the lobby of the hotel. English hurried on my heels. She knew enough to stay silent after what just happened. I rubbed my eyes again, ignoring the flash of a camera before darting into our awaiting car.
I turned to face the entrance of the hotel through the blackened window and found Gavin rushing out after us. He kicked something on the sidewalk, bellowing his rage as the car pulled away.
“Whit,” English whispered.
