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“Absolutely not.”
Oh, fuck this.
I march up the stairs. “Listen, I know I fucked you all up, but I gave you a chance. The least you can do—”
“Did you? I thought it was all fake.” Wes arches a brow. His gaze is sharp with a mocking challenge.
“I—whatever!” I try to push past Wes, but he shoves me back, keeping a firm hold on me so I don’t tumble down the stairs. “Just let me see him.”
“No.”
“Wes.I want to help him. He’s like this because of me. Let me try and fix this.”
It doesn’t seem like he’s going to budge, but then he says, “On one condition.”
“What?”
“Tell the goddamn truth.”
My breath catches in my throat. “W-what?”
“Tell me it wasn’t all a lie.”
“Seriously?” I grit out.
Wes shrugs. “Your choice, Harper.”
I don’t want to go back to this place with Wes—the constant power struggle. Knowing that he’s reverted to it without a second thought makes my heart ache even though it makes sense. I hurthim—I hurt all of them. It doesn’t matter that it was in retaliation. The logical thing for him to do is put his walls back up.
But if this is what I have to do to get to Cal, then so be it.
Raising my gaze to meet Wes’s hard, dark eyes, I say, “It wasn’t all a lie.”
I’ve never really, truly admitted it to myself. In bits and pieces, sure, but I’ve always found ways to deny it. I was delusional, I confused sex for love, I was working through my trauma, I wasn’t thinking clearly—whatever it took for me to justify the feelings I didn’t want to acknowledge.
Now, Wes is forcing me to. I was expecting the admission to be a burden, but instead, I feel fifty pounds lighter.
“I wasn’t supposed to fall for you three,” I continue. “All I wanted was to hurt you. But… that changed.”
Still at the bottom of the stairs, Kellan releases a long, audible breath. I want to turn, to tell him that I meant what I said—that I love him, and I can’t get myself to stop. But I’m caught in Wes’s gaze.
Conflicting emotions cross his face as he watches me. His hand moves, reaching toward me, but he shoves it into his pocket at the last second.
“Please, Wes. Just let me see Cal.”
“Fine. But don’t you dare hurt him more,” Wes says, his voice low and threatening.
A shiver runs through me. “I won’t.”
Wes’s eyes soften, but they harden just as quickly. He wants to believe me, but he can’t. Part of me feels vindicated by his pain, but at this point, I don’t care about revenge anymore.
When Wes steps to the side, I give him a thankful yet uneasy smile and pass by him. I’ve walked down this hallway so many times, but this feels different.
Downstairs, the house felt like home, but after seeing Wes, I feel like I don’t belong. Like I’m an intruder.
Am I about to make everything worse?I wonder as I push Cal’s door open.
His room is dark, and it’s a wreck, like someone tore through the entire thing. The knife he normally keeps on his nightstand is gone.
