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I still heard that hair-splitting scream in my mind over and over. It would haunt me forever.
I could see the muscle working in Bash’s jaw. He was grinding his teeth. “Lacey, I trusted you with my son. Now he’s got a broken arm and a few screws holding his elbow together for the next six weeks. As bad as that is, I’m lucky he only broke his arm. What if he broke his neck? Or ended up with a spine or brain injury?”
Those scenarios had been running rampant in my head for days. “I would never forgive myself if that happened. Bash, I’m so sorry. I only turned away for a moment. I feel absolutely awful that he got hurt.”
He pinned me with a frosty glare. “Maybe you weren’t watching him that well. Maybe taking care of a four-year-old kid isn’t exciting enough for you?”
Everything inside me froze right down to my very cells. What he said was horrible. Hurtful. Shocking. I stepped backward. “What are you saying?”
I closed my eyes, hoping he’d take it back. He was just angry and didn’t mean it.
“Maybe you were bored, so you called your boyfriend, Liam, over to join you and you were too busy with him to keep an eye on Kody?”
His words were ugly, but the sneering look on his face was uglier.
A lump of anguish formed in my throat. “What are you talking about?”
He stepped closer to me, looming over me, intimidating me. “Did you invite a man over to my house while I was gone?”
I shook my head in denial. “No, that’s crazy. I would never do that. Why are you doing this?”
He scoffed in disbelief. “I don’t know, Lacey. How about you tell me?”
I couldn’t believe what he was accusing me of. I took a deep breath to try to get my bearings. “You and I agreed to be exclusive. I haven’t been seeing other men. Liam has absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Kody.”
He ran a hand down his face in frustration. “Then who is he, Lace? Why won’t you tell me?”
“Where is all of this coming from? I don’t understand.” My head was spinning. “I told you there haven’t been any other men.”
“I don’t believe you,” he spit out.
My eyes widened with shock. “What? I trusted you when you went on that date with the fan. If you don’t trust me, Bash, then we don’t have a real relationship.”
He started pacing back and forth in my kitchen, running his hand through his hair. “You’re fucking lying to me.”
“No.”
He wasn’t even looking at me anymore as he continued ranting. “You’re lying about Liam. You’re lying about Theo. And you’re lying about what happened to Kody.”
Shock blasted through me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. And I was starting to get pissed. “Theo!” I shouted. “What the fuck does he have to do with any of this?”
“I can’t anymore.” He stopped in his tracks and turned to me. “I have to protect my son.”
I sagged against the kitchen island. My voice sounded like defeat. “You think I’m a threat to Kody? I would never hurt him.”
He was speaking calmly now. It was unnerving. As if the argument was over and I had come up short. “I have to protect him physically ... and emotionally, too.”
I swiped a hand over my eyes. Tears were threatening to fall. “From me?”
He shook his head bitterly. “I can’t do this. Whatever the fuck this is. Kody is my first priority.”
“What are you saying?” I whispered hoarsely.
“I guess your little kinky playtime is over.” He turned and walked away toward the elevator.
I didn’t follow him. I didn’t run after him and beg him to stay. The elevator beeped, the doors slid open and then closed, and he was gone.
None of what had just happened made any sense. It actually took a while for my mind to catch up to the reality of what had just happened. But when it hit me, it hit hard. Bash and I were finished. I sunk to the floor in a heap of grief. It was as ugly as it was painful.
