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I shake my head. “No.”
“Your mom—” She scowls. “Your parents came to the funeral.”
“I wasn’t really talking to my parents much, then, either,” I admit. “I was dating Willow. Miles’ girl.”
“So you ostracized yourself.”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Fuck off, Knox.” Her eyes are full of unshed tears. Not crying, but on the way. “I don’t want to talk about you. I don’t want to talk about any of this.”
She picks up the ring and shoves it at me. “I don’t want to wear this. I don’t want to look at it, I don’t want to think about it?—”
“You kept it, though.” I catch it and her fingers, keeping her palm pressed to my chest. “You kept the ring I gave you. For fucking years. Why?”
She blinks at me. “Because I didn’t want to believe the worst, Knox.”
“What did you want to believe?”
“You’re so good attalking, but you suck at communication.” She stands, tugging her hand free. “You think I did something to betray you? Why didn’t you ask me? Instead of just accusing me and ruining my life?”
“I didn’t ruin?—”
“It’s that betrayal that’s making you hold on to our sham of a marriage,” she snaps. “It’s that one moment, whatever happened when we were seventeen and eighteen, that put us on opposite sides. And when I needed you, you weren’t there.” Her voice cracks.
And the tears spill over.
“You wanted me at your mom’s funeral?”
“Yes.” She lets out a laugh. “Yes, Knox, I would’ve wanted you at the fucking funeral. But instead, you didn’t even know she died.”
I didn’t.
I’m standing on a razor wire’s edge, debating which way to fall. Staring at the one girl I thought I’d do anything for and questioning absolutely everything that’s come out of her mouth since I met her.
Like I’ve been doing on repeat since I left for good.
“If you wanted me in your goddamn life so bad, sunshine, you shouldn’t have slept with my fucking brother.”
I point in her face. Forget the fact that I was going to be nice. I can’t seem to keep it together around her, and she’saskingfor this. She wants honesty.
Well, here’s the honest truth. “You did this to yourself, Aurora. I didn’t ruin anything.You did.”
26
AURORA
“Hello?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. This is one of the stupider things I’ve done. Especially since Knox is asleep. I went as far as I could go in his condo, caught in the corner of windows on the opposite side of the large space.
I still feel hollow. Crying never sits well with me. And I had prided myself on not crying since my mom died. But apparently thinking about her, or having anything to do with Knox, has unleashed the tears.
Years’ worth of crying is all coming out now.
I slipped that vibrator out of my underwear and threw it back at him along with the ring. Because I wanted none of it. I didn’t want to touch him, I didn’t want to follow his rules. I just wanted to sit in silence and wait until we could go home.
My unit is empty of all my personal possessions. The only things left are the big furniture items that didn’t fit in his condo. The bed, the couch, et cetera. We went there before coming up to his, and I stared in shock at how much work the movers did in so short a time period.
