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“But when I got there…” The vision still haunted me. “He was already eating out…his assistant.”
Flynn choked. “That fucking prick! Did you confront him?”
“I was mortified, Flynn! I couldn’t.” My lower lip trembled, knowing I should have ended it right there. “I couldn’t face him for days.”
“Hey, hey…” Flynn buried me into his arms as tears filled my eyes. “I get it. When I found out about Susan and Rick, I fucking vomited. It took me a while to process the reality of it all.”
My heart hurt more for him than it did for myself. “Maybe we’re cursed.”
“Things will get better, Daisy.” He ruffled my hair like I was ten years old. “Trust me. You’ll see he wasn’t right for you. In fact, I never thought he was.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“He got you through that first year of college after Mom and Dad died, so I cut him some slack. But in hindsight, maybe he was taking advantage. You were so vulnerable back then.”
My gaze passed over Ethan’s guilt-ridden face. “Maybe…”
That was it. The reason Ethan ran away to Europe after my parents' funeral. He thought he’d taken advantage of me.
While everyone was in our living room, celebrating their lives, I was in my bedroom, hiding. I was completely numb and desperate to feel the love that had been torn away, and that was when Ethan found me. He shared my loss as if they were his own parents and held me in his arms as tears streamed down my face. When I’d lifted my gaze to his, our connection was so intense our mouths drew together, followed by our bodies, and finally, the pain eased. He was exactly what I needed in that moment, but when things really started heating up, he pulled away in disgust. With a mumbled apology, he fumbled over the buttons of his shirt and hurried out of my room.
He dropped out of college a week later and left for Europe, barely making contact over the next year. We’d never spoken about the incident, but it clearly wasn’t forgotten.
I turned back to my brother. “Or perhaps I was taking advantage of him.”
Flynn’s eyebrows pulled together. “How?”
“He was the first guy to ask me out in college. He listened and cared for me when I needed someone most. He was…”—I lowered my eyes—“safe.”
Ethan scoffed. “He was controlling, manipulative, and you never stepped a foot over the line to know if you were safe.”
I sucked in an angry breath. “That’s not true.”
“You never fought—about anything. Even thingsI knowwould piss you off.”
Flynn’s shoulders dropped. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Thank you,” Ethan said, bowing arrogantly.
My blood boiled as I glared at him. “Shall we analyze your relationships next, Ethan?”
Flynn waved his hands between us. “Regardless of your reasons for being together, he’s the one who fucked up, Daisy. Not you.”
“I know…buthedoesn’t see it that way. He’s struggling to accept it’s over.”
Flynn leaned forward. “Has he been harassing you?”
“If you call persistent phone calls and continuously showing up at the house unannounced harassing, then yes.”
Flynn’s dark gaze panned to Ethan. “You’re supposed to be watching out for her, man.”
“I didn’t know about this,” he retorted, paling at the realization.
“It’s fine, guys,” I intercepted. “I don’t need your protection.”
“Well, as soon as I get this apartment on the market and move back home, I’ll be the one answering the door until he gets the message. In the meantime”—he turned to Ethan like The Terminator—“it’s on you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, shaking his head as he tossed the rest of the cookie into the trash bin.
