AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The wedding went well,” he said, and I scoffed.
“Yeah, I heard about the fight they had after,” I muttered.
Adam laughed. “I didn’t, but I don’t really keep up with Toby unless he calls to ask me for money.”
I looked at him. “And he calls to ask you for money because you took all of the inheritance, right?”
Adam stared at me.
I nodded slowly. “Is that not the case?”
“Toby was the favorite, my parents’ golden boy,” he said flatly. “He could do no wrong, and I couldn’t do anything right.”
I looked at him, surprised. Toby had told me the exact opposite.
“He told me?—”
“I’m sure he told you all kinds of bullshit,” Adam scoffed.
I swallowed hard, thinking again about how Toby had lied to me for months about Rachel. Was it really that hard to believe that he’d lied about Adam too?
“So then what about your parents’ inheritance?” I asked.
Adam sat further back on the couch, resting his head against the cushion. “What about it?”
“Like I said before, Toby told me that you stole it from him, took it to invest into your business without asking.”
Adam snorted out a laugh. “Of course that’s what he told you,” he muttered.
“What really happened?” I asked, leaning forward to get closer, fascinated. I couldn’t believe that I’d never doubted Toby before, especially because I knew what a liar he could be.
“He blew through his portion of the inheritance in months,” Adam said firmly. “He spent it all on partying and women, and when it was gone, he needed to ask me for money. I’ve been funding his lifestyle for God knows how long. Hell, I just paid for his wedding.”
I gasped. “You paid for every bit of that extravagant wedding? God, that must have cost tens of thousands of dollars. I didn’t realize...”
Adam smiled wryly. “Yeah, and that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what he’s taken from me over the years.”
I cocked my head. “Why do you do it? Why do you keep helping him?”
He shrugged. “He’s my brother. Family is important to me, plus my parents and I didn’t have the best relationship.... I guess I felt some guilt when they died, and I knew they would want Toby taken care of.”
“But he’s a grown man,” I said incredulously.
“Try telling him that,” Adam scoffed. I couldn’t believe that he was so blasé about the whole thing. If it were me, I’d be bitter and angry about all the money I’d shelled out over the years, how Toby had betrayed him.
My shoulders loosened slightly. Adam wasn’t the guy that I thought he was. He wasn’t at all like Toby. He was a good guy, in fact, and I felt bad about judging him so harshly.
“I’m sorry that I believed the worst about you,” I said softly, looking away, and Adam hummed in the back of his throat.
“It’s okay. He was your boyfriend and you trusted him. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“So, did things at the wedding go like you had hoped?” I asked suddenly. “Did you get what you wanted from me?”
Adam sighed, looking away and then back into my eyes. “It started out as revenge, to piss Toby off and it started out with me using you as a means to an end, but I have to admit, I had a great time with you. Things began to progress into... something else.”
My heart thudded too quickly in my chest. “Then why did you leave me like that?”
Adam groaned. “Because I’m stupid. I had work and well, I’m not used to sleeping overnight with women. I haven’t made a real connection with a woman since my first love in high school, and we were just kids. It was wrong for me to leave like that and I’m sorry.”
