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But then pain flashes on her face, and she lets out a shaky breath. She pulls her shoulders back. “After you left, I… I found…” Her eyes fill with tears while I stand waiting, letting the pounding of my heart consume me. I prepare myself for what I know is to come. “I found—”
“You found someone else,” I finish for her.
“What?” she slings back, voice tight and disbelieving.
“I’m sorry, I thought… it’s none of my business.”
A tear runs down her cheek, and she swipes it away angrily, her shoulders sagging as she shakes her head. “This situation deserves more,” she rasps, face tight.
“Your brother told me to come here, Scarlet. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You think you’re hurting me now? You think these tears are for you?” I watch helplessly as her temper rises. “God. You have no idea! You have no idea because you chose yourself. You chose you. And the only reason you’re here now is because you can’t stand the idea of not knowing if it was the right decision. You want me to be happy and okay and perfect so that you won’t feel the guilt that came with choosing to protect yourself.”
Something deep inside of me jars at her words. The truth in them. I shake my head and step toward her.
“Stay away from me,” she warns, turning and stalking away. She runs up the steps, passing Mason and Nina, who are now watching on from the terrace.
I pause at the bottom of the steps, looking up at the two of them. Mason’s face is like thunder, and as his gaze moves to Nina, his wife, she gives him a sad pained look back before she nods once.
“No,” Scarlet snaps, stepping through the doors and halting Mason as he takes the first step toward me. “He doesn’t get your words. He doesn’t get it sugarcoated.” She stops when she reaches the top step.
My eyes widen as her arm pulls back, and then I flinch as something hurtles toward me.
Whatever it is cracks against my temple, and I stagger back.
I hear Nina gasp, and then I blink twice. Three times. Four.
Fuck.
I lift my eyes to the terrace, finding Scarlet and Nina wide-eyed and Mason nodding with a satisfied look on his face.
“I didn’t… oh my god, I didn’t mean to hit you.” Scarlet frowns, conflicted. “I… I’m so sorry.” She turns and rushes back inside the house.
Mason turns and follows her.
I feel a trickle of something on my eye and reach up to swipe at it, finding blood smeared on my finger.
“I think it looks worse than it is,” Nina says, bending and picking up the stack of letters at my feet. “I can get you something.” She gestures to my eye, but I shake my head.
“It’s fine.”
She looks up at me, something like sympathy in her inquisitive gaze. “Are you okay, Lance?”
Of all the people I thought would ask me that… “It doesn’t matter if I’m okay.”
Nina nods then eyes the letters that have somehow found their way back into my hands. “You’ll find a lot of answers in there…” She frowns a little, her throat visibly working. “You need to read them. Don’t wait, okay?”
“What good will it do?” I ask, my cheeks reddening at the way my voice wavers. “It’s been seven years, Nina. Why would she even want me to read them after so much time?”
Something flashes in her eyes, a realisation that quickly turns into pity as her head tilts. “She’s not looking for a do-over…” Her shoulders drop. “You need to leave now. And call ahead next time. I’ll have Mason send over the house number. She can’t come home from work to this. It’s not fair.”
“I won’t be back.” I turn away from her, placing the letters inside the seat of my bike.
“Lance,” she says in a bid to stop me.
I climb on my bike, eventually looking up as I pull on my helmet.
I tip my chin at her.
