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Zara tucked loose blonde hair behind her ear nervously. “I figured it was about time I gave it back. It’s just been sitting in our garage, and Joel said—” She winced and cut herself off. “Anyway, here you go.” Yanking Neri’s lost phone from her pocket, she held it out. “This too. I found it under our couch. I know your password, so I took the liberty to ensure it hadn’t been tampered with and then I shut it down. It’s been safe in my bedside drawer ever since.”
“I wondered where that’d gone.” Neri stepped closer and accepted the phone. “You...didn’t read any messages or anything?”
Zara flicked me a guilty glance before shaking her head. “No. I mean...I saw one from Aslan, but I didn’t invade your privacy. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it back sooner. I just...I couldn’t face you.”
I’d always thought Zara was pretty in a wholesome Australian girl kind of way but after what she let happen? After she’d been in the same house while Neri was raped and didn’t hear her screaming...
Fuck, now I couldn’t stand to look at her.
My hands fisted as Neri put the phone into the drink holder of her bike then wheeled it from Zara’s grasp. “Thanks.” Pushing it to the side of the house, she rested it against the cream-painted bricks, then turned back to face her frenemy. Crossing her arms over her towel-wrapped chest, she tipped up her chin. “Anything else?”
I’d never been prouder.
Her body language said ‘fuck off’ and I was beyond fucking grateful that seeing Zara hadn’t regressed her to what’d happened the last time they were together.
Awkward silence fell between the two girls as Zara shoved her hands into her denim short-shorts, her floaty flower top dancing in the muggy breeze. “I, eh...how have you been?”
Neri’s eyes widened. “You’re asking me how I’ve been?” She shot me a look full of hurt and confusion. “I-I don’t know how to answer that.”
Fury scalded my blood. I couldn’t permit this to go on.
“You’ve delivered her bike and phone,” I snarled, wading out of the pool to the sandy shore. Ice frosted my bones as I wrapped a spare white towel around my waist, grateful my cock no longer tented my black boardshorts. “Now go.”
Zara sucked in a breath, her nostrils flaring. “I only meant...”
“Have you forgotten what you said to me that night?” Neri asked coldly.
“No, I—”
“You were awful to me, Zara.”
“I know. I was drunk and hurt and—”
“That’s no fucking excuse,” I hissed, going to my wife’s side, curling my arm around her and tucking her ever so close. “You were a cold-hearted bitch.”
Neri sighed in relief as she leaned against me, drawing strength from my embrace. “You really hurt me, Zar.”
“I know. I’ve felt terrible about it for weeks.”
“Yet you only come by now?” I glowered at her. “You’re not worth Neri’s time.”
Zara stiffened, looking from Neri to me and back again. “I said bad things, I know. But...it was only because I was hurting. I miss you, Nee. So much.”
My hackles shot to full bristle. “Fuck off, Zara. You’re no longer welcome here—”
“I know I hurt you,” Neri said softly, cutting me off. “I meant what I said, Zar: that we’d grow old together and have our children grow up as cousins, but I was wrong to let you think I would have those kids with Joel. I led you on in that way. I led both of you on, and I’m sorry for that.”
Tears shot to Zara’s eyes. “I was protecting my brother. I let him tell me who I could and couldn’t be friends with. I can’t stop thinking about what I said to you at that party. I didn’t mean it. I—”
“Did you hear me?” Neri interrupted, shivering in my hold. “Did you hear me screaming?”
Zara’s entire face crumpled. That one question set off a torrent of confessions. “Nee, you have to believe me, I had no idea what happened. None. Not until that detective visited us this morning. He was searching for my boyfriend. My parents have been allowing Coop to stay with us while he finds his own place, now that he’s decided to move here permanently for me, and when Cooper stepped outside to talk to the detective, I hid by the open window and listened. Fuck, Nee. The detective asked such awful questions. He said there was an allegation about Ethan Karlton. That he’d raped someone at my house the night of my party when my parents were in Singapore. He said Ethan was missing, and his family in Adelaide hadn’t heard from him in over a month. He...he said the alleged rape occurred around ten p.m. and that got me thinking which then got me horrified.”
Tears poured down her cheeks. “You were there then. We fought—”
“You called me a brother fucker and a whore,” Neri murmured.
