AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The scene was imprinted on my brain no matter how hard I tried to scrub it. Her bent over the couchI’dpicked out, him behind her, their moans and gasps as I stood frozen, trying to process what the fuck was happening. They’d been so caught up in each other, they didn’t notice me until after they’d finished.
A fresh wave of humiliation flooded me. Getting cheated on was one thing. Getting cheated on by your fiancé and sister was a new level of betrayal.
Even though Georgia and I weren’t close, I hadn’t expected her to be so callous. She’d never even apologized.
“Jesus.” Xavier let out a string of Spanish curses. “I’m so fucking sorry, Luna.”
“It’s okay. It was an important lesson,” I said flatly.Don’t trust people, and don’t let them in.I couldn’t get hurt if I didn’t care. “They barely showed remorse. I kicked Georgia out, but not before she blamed my overworking for why he strayed. After she left, Bentley and I got into a huge fight, and he…” My knuckles whitened around the edge of my chair. “He said I was toofrigid. That I’d always been an ice queen and that I got worse after I started my PR company. He said I couldn’t blame him for hooking up with Georgia when she was so passionate and I couldn’t even show proper emotion. Needless to say, we broke up that night. He and Georgia started dating officially a week later.”
If you weren’t such an ice queen all the time, maybe I wouldn’t have gone looking elsewhere.
My throat and nose burned. “The worst part was my father took Georgia’s side. There was no way his precious perfect daughter would’ve done that without good reason. He blamed me using the same reasons they did, and when I refused to let it go, he gave me an ultimatum. Get over it or get out. So I got out.”
Recounting the story out loud carried the sting of fresh wounds, but as my words dissolved in the sterile air, the initial pain gradually transformed into a therapeutic numbness.
By locking away those memories, I’d given them power. They’d festered over the years, sprouting horns and claws and morphing into a nightmare I constantly ran from, whether I knew it or not. By sharing them out loud, I’d stripped them of that power.
They were nothing but a small man behind a big curtain, trying to convince me they could hurt me.
They couldn’t.
It wasn’t my fault that Georgia was a terrible sister or that Bentley was an insecure, cheating bastard. Nor was it my fault my father was too blinded by his biases to see what was right in front of him.Theywere the ones who should be ashamed, not me.
“Sloane. Listen to me.” Xavier grasped my shoulders and turned me so I faced him. His eyes glittered like dark coals of anger. “You are not fuckingfrigid. You’re one of the most driven, passionate people I know, even if you may show it differently than others, and you built one of the best PR firms in the world in five years. You think someone without passion can do that? And even if you were quote unquote ‘cold’ to your asshole ex, he deserved it. If he doesn’t appreciate you for who you are, then hedamnwell doesn’t deserve your time or energy.”
His expression was fierce, and his touch seared like it was trying to impress his conviction onto my soul.
It happened so suddenly, I would’ve stumbled had I been standing.
Awhooshswept through my stomach, followed by the dizzying, disorienting, but not totally unpleasant sensation of tumbling over an edge. Pieces of me floated alongside his words, little champagne bubbles that shouldn’t exist after such a shitty day but did anyway.
Xavier Castillo. Only you.
“You should be a motivational coach.” I managed a wobbly smile. “You would kill on the speaker circuit.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” For once, he didn’t match my smile. “Tell me you understand, Luna. None of what happened was your fault. Fuck Bentley, fuck Georgia, andfuckyour family.” He paused. “Except Pen.”
Another laugh burbled, elbowing unshed tears out of the way. “I understand.”
I truly did.
I’d come to the same conclusion seconds before Xavier’s speech, but thinking it and hearing someone else affirm it were two different things.
An anchor unhooked from my shoulders, and for the first time in years, I breathed easier.
Running into my family had started as a disaster and ended up being therapeutic.Go figure. Nothing in my life had worked the way it should’ve since Xavier entered it, though I wasn’t complaining.
“Good.” He released my shoulders, but a trace of caution lingered on his face. “We should probably get out of here soon unless you want to see Pen again.”
“She won’t wake up for a while, and I don’t want to get Rhea into trouble.” I explained my father’s instructions. Xavier responded with acword that made me smile. “But I agree. We should leave before the staff starts asking questions.”
A quick glance at my watch told me we’d been here for…fuck.
Two hours? How was that possible?
“We’ll pick up dinner. Then I’ll drop you off at your apartment,” Xavier said as we exited the building. It was already dark outside, and a brisk chill snuck beneath the layers of my coat and sweater. “You must be hungry.”
“I’m not that hungry.” Despite my recent catharsis, I blanched at the thought of returning to my empty apartment. Well, The Fish was there, but he wasn’t exactly stimulating company.
