For the first time since Kamryn and I had decided we were going to do this, we weren’t pulling each other closer as soon as we were alone. She had one arm out as if to keep me away and kept taking small steps back. I would have given anything to start the last minute over.

“He stopped by when I was at Jace’s today, and he said he went to your place last night. Why was he there, and why didn’t you tell me? You never responded to me last night, and I hadn’t heard from you since the party. That’s not like you. So did you sleep with him?”

She looked like I’d slapped her. “How dare you,” she whispered. “How dare you accuse me of anything when you have yet to leave your wife after you promised—you promised, Brody—that you would. It’s been months, and you obviously have no plans to divorce her since you told her you’re not leaving her!”

When had Olivia and Kamryn talked? How did they even know each other? “How did you know about that?”

“Oh, my God, she wasn’t lying.”

“I can explain, Kam—”

Kamryn stumbled back, and the tears that had been filling her eyes finally spilled over. “You can explain? You can explain to me how for the last two months you’ve been lying to me and making empty promises of a future together? What was last night, Brody? One last round of pity sex?”

“Of course, it wasn’t! Tell me how you know Olivia and what else she told you.” Kamryn grabbed her purse off one of the large chairs and started walking toward the door. Before she could reach it, I grabbed her arm to stop her. “Kamryn—”

“What does it matter, Brody?!” she cried and pulled against my hold. “I’m just the stupid mistress who believed all your bullshit and thought you really loved me. I’m done, Brody, I’m so done. I can’t do this anymore—what we’ve been doing has been killing me, but I would’ve stayed with you because I love you and I trusted you! I trusted that you were filing for divorce, that you were telling Olivia that you were leaving her, that you were planning our future together. But you never had any plans to leave her, did you? I was never anything to you but a convenient fuck.”

She yanked her arm free and grabbed the handle of the door. Her assumptions about our relationship, combined with thoughts of her and Aiden together, had my anger winning out, and before I could stop myself I was lashing out at her. “You wanna talk about accusations and trust?! How are you going to talk to me about trust and tell me what our relationship did and didn’t mean to me when you were screwing my brother’s friend last night? Yeah, Kamryn, let’s talk about convenient fucks. Starting with Aiden and me. Is it just us or is it any guy who happens to be around?”

As soon as the words were out, and before her palm could connect with my face, I felt like the worst kind of asshole. I couldn’t believe those words had just left me. I couldn’t believe I’d just purposefully hurt her that way.

“Go to hell, Brody,” she seethed and took a step into the hall.

My hand reached out in search of hers. “Kam, I’m sor—”

“Aiden found out about us! He came over to confront me about it, and we talked about my relationship with you. I begged him not to tell anyone else—that was all. I’ve never even kissed him, you asshole.”

I gripped the door frame when the door slammed shut behind her and let my forehead fall hard against it. How had I screwed this up so much? It felt like my life was slipping through my fingers and I was rapidly grasping at anything to keep me there. If I lost Kamryn, I lost everything.

I flung the door open and took off down the hall, but she was already stepping onto the elevator so I turned and sprinted toward the stairs and rushed down the flights. Bursting out the side exit door near the stairwell, I searched for Kamryn’s car as I made my way toward the front of the parking lot and looked for her.

When I saw her racing into the lot, I took off after her, calling out her name. She didn’t stop, but I caught her just as she got to the driver’s side door of her car. Pulling her into my arms, I dropped my forehead to hers and held her there.

“I’m sorry. I’m an asshole, I know. I didn’t mean what I said to you about Aiden. God I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave, we need to talk about this.”

“I can’t, Brody, I can’t keep doing this with you. You don’t even trust me. You thought I would be with Aiden? I know I’m in a relationship with a married man, but regardless how society views our relationship, I’m not a whore! And you—you didn’t even deny that you told Olivia you were staying with her.”

“I can explain that, Kamryn, but we need to talk about it. We need to figure something out. You need to know what happened when I went home last night. And Aiden—I’m sorry. When I found out he was there, I just flipped. You’re mine, and the thought of anyone touching what is mine drives me insane.”

“I am yours, Brody,” she whispered and tried to step back from me. “But you’re not mine. You never were. I can’t keep being the mistress in a relationship that I give my everything to, when you’re only giving a fraction of yourself.”

“You’re not a mistress, you’re my world.” I pulled her close and rested my forehead against hers again. “I can’t lose you. I’m so sorry. I love you, Liv.”

An agonized cry left her before she could cover her mouth with her hand, and I thought I would die right in that moment.

“Good-bye, Brody.”

“Pl—” My breaths were coming too fast and strong. “Please! Kamryn! I didn’t mean—”

“It’s over. Go back to your wife and stay there. I’m done sharing you with her.”

She turned, and my arms fell away from her. I couldn’t reach for her again even if I tried. I stumbled back until I hit the car next to hers and slid down to the ground as I watched her get in her car and drive away. My end couldn’t come soon enough. In less than twenty minutes, I’d insulted and lost the girl who meant everything to me, and I’d called her by another woman’s name. This had to be the worst nightmare I’d ever experienced. I needed to wake up and have it be yesterday morning all over again.

16

Brody

July 15, 2015

“OLIVIA, CAN YOU come here for a minute?”

“Kinda busy, Bro. We can talk tomorrow. I need to get to my parents’ so we can get to the club on time.”

I blew out a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “This will only take a few minutes, and you’ve been blowing me off for the last couple days.”

She tsked, and I knew she was rolling her eyes. “Poor Brody wants attention,” she mocked. “Go get it from your friends.”

“Olivia, sit in the fucking chair for a minute!”

“Oh, so you have a temper now too? Do you want me to tell Daddy about this?” She sat roughly in the chair and immediately began drumming her fingernails on the table. “Well¸ what did you want? I need to go!”

I huffed a laugh and couldn’t help but smile. Jesus, why did it take me this long to do this? “You’re making this a lot easier than I—”

“What?” she snapped.

“I filed for divorce three days ago, Liv.”

“You what?!”

“And I should’ve done it years ago.”

She stood quickly and began pacing. “You can’t divorce me! My dad will ruin you. I will take everything you have, Brody!”

“The house is in my name only, and you keep draining our accounts, so I have no money. You’ve already completely ruined my life, what more could you do?”

“You’re about to find out.”

“Save your threats, Liv. I’m done with all of this.”

Tears poured down her face, and her shoulders hunched. “You can’t do this to me! You killed our son.”

“Stop using that against me! Goddamn it, Olivia! I will have to live with that for the rest of my life, but I won’t fucking live another five years of you constantly reminding me of what happened to Tate. If you had an ounce of respect for his memory or me, you wouldn’t keep doing this. And don’t try the suicide thing with me again. I see your bullshit—fuck, Olivia, I see it now, and I hate myself for not seeing it a long time ago. You love yourself and your life way too much to ever jeopardize it. And another thing—since this is my house, I put it on the market this morning. I don’t want anything that reminds me of my years with you, and I want you out of here by the weekend.”

“You bastard! Where am I supposed to go?”

“Your parents have a mansion, and you spend the majority of your time there already. Shouldn’t be hard to take the rest of your stuff there.”

Her tears had stopped just as fast as they’d started, and I wondered why it had taken me so long to notice that everyone was right. She was an amazing actress. Liv deserved a fucking Oscar. “How can you be so heartless?”

I laughed and stood up from the table. “How can you? And don’t bother trying to drain our accounts again, Liv. I had all the money moved and those accounts closed.”

“You can’t do any of this!” she screeched and threw her keys across the kitchen. “There has to be a law! That’s my money, this is my damn house!”

“That’s the beautiful thing about being the only name and signature on the house and all our accounts, Liv. None of it is yours. You haven’t worked a day in your life, all you’ve done is blow my money on useless shit like a Lexus to match your Mercedes, couches when we already had new ones, and a tanning bed . . . to name a few.”

If it hadn’t been for the fact that I hadn’t heard back from Kamryn for a week and a half and I felt like she’d taken my soul with her, this would have been one of the best moments in almost five years. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off me. Even as Olivia sat there threatening to sue me and make my life miserable, I was so damn happy I’d finally done it.