That didn’t seem like James. Even if he’d fallen out of love with Sarah, he wasn’t the type to leave someone he felt responsible for alone and injured in the hospital.
“I raced to the hospital and sat by her bed for days. She was on a ventilator. They wanted me to turn off her life support, but I just couldn’t. She didn’t have any other family, and James wouldn’t come. In the end, I made the only decision I could.”
“Oh, Sloan.” How terrible that must have been for him. Anger stirred. How could James have left Sloan to deal with that? But, then, she hadn’t been there and she hadn’t heard James’s side. She would have hugged him except she sensed he was holding onto his control by a thread.
“James tried to offer to help me. But, at that point, I was so furious with him I wouldn’t see him. Once she was gone and arrangements were made I went home. The closer I got to the house we’d shared, the more furious I became. By the time I slammed my way through the front door, I was ready to kick his ass. I couldn’t believe he’d turned his back on her.”
“What did he say?”
“The bastard walked out of his study with a glass of scotch in one hand, looking like he hadn’t slept in days. I saw red. I pushed him back into his study, broke his nose with one punch, followed it up with a savage knee to the gut. He just took it. When I realized he wouldn’t fight back, I stopped. I asked him why he’d abandoned her? I screamed at him that she was ours, and he should have been there for her.”
“What did he say?”
“That he would have been there in a flash for me, but not for her.”
She sucked in a breath.
“He told me that she’d betrayed us both.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. They’d gotten into a fight, and she’d been so upset she’d packed a suitcase and left. She’d been so distraught, she took a corner too fast in the dark and flipped her car. It was his fault she died. I left. I only went back later, when he wasn’t there, to get my stuff.”
“You haven’t seen him since?”
“No.”
Jesus, what a mess.
“Neither of you had any closure. Don’t you want to know what happened?”
He stood. “I know what happened. James is a selfish bastard who always gets what he wants. He wanted her gone so he waited until I left, and he made it happen. Only it backfired on him.”
She let out a deep breath. “Sloan, I know I haven’t known James that long—”
“Exactly. And he’s brilliant at making people see what they want to see. There’s no one better. He takes what he wants, and doesn’t care who he hurts.”
Wow. There was a lot of pain there, and she couldn’t blame him. She also knew there were two sides to every story, and they didn’t know James’s side. She thought about the agony that still remained in Sloan’s voice. Not over Sarah’s death. Most of the anger, the pain, was when he spoke of James.
He might not think he needed to know everything, but he did.
“And don’t take offence, but you’re a little naïve when it comes to people.”
Wow. She frowned. “I’ve always thought that saying ‘don’t take offence’ was a way to say something rude without feeling guilty.”
He looked over at her. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You just called me naïve. And you’ve said, several times, that James has fooled me into thinking he’s a better person than he is. So, I’m naïve and stupid, right?”
He groaned. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“Am I?”
“Darlin’, James has been manipulating everyone around him for years. I should know, he did it to me.”
“You loved him.”
“We weren’t involved like that.”