Opening my eyes, I stared at him. “I always knew I wasn’t good enough for Frankie. I’m not meant to be happy. I might not have a wife at home, but I have the ghost of a wife and a son that I carry everywhere. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to give Frankie what she deserves, which is a whole person to love her completely. A part of me will always be with them. So, yes, I’m not cheating in the traditional sense, but I feel like I am. Every time I’m with Frankie, I feel like I’m cheating on my wife. How do I live with that? How do I expect Frankie to live with that?”
“Do you want me to tell her?”
Twisting violently, I glared at him. “No! Promise me this goes no further. Let her hate me. I deserve it.”
“Your secrets are safe with me, man. I promise. But she wouldn't hate you, Matt. You should talk to her.”
Rubbing my temples, I let out a sigh. “I think we have a bigger problem. That ring was in my safe. Locked away in here. They left it in Frankie’s suite with a note. Look, it looks like your writing again. This is the same person who got to Emmy. Someone has been in my room, got into my safe, and then got inside the penthouse without anyone noticing.”
“Fuck. Who the hell is doing this?”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to get out of here because I’m not sure I can keep any of you safe.”
Chapter 16
Frankie
“Comeheresweetie,giveyour mum a hug and tell me what’s going on.”
We’d been back in the UK for a few weeks. Gray had moved in with Ivy and Ethan, although we still video called him every day to check how he was doing.
He looked like himself again. The dark circles under his eyes had faded. He smiled more, and he promised that his OCD was under control. He didn’t know, but we had a secret chat group with Ivy and Ethan, so they could give us therealupdates on how he was, but they promised he was doing well; speaking to his therapist and taking his medication. Being away from the people he loved more than anything in the world and forced to pretend to be someone he wasn’t had been too much for him.
Now he was getting the support he needed for his OCD and was back where he belonged with his husband and wife. He was getting back to the happy Gray we all knew and loved.
I was so happy for him, but his happiness was bittersweet because my heart was broken, and I didn’t know how I’d ever recover from Matt’s lies.
Tanner, Mav, and I had moved home while we all took a break from the band. Addi ribbed us all the time about still living with our parents, but we were home so infrequently that we secretly loved coming back to the space we grew up and now I needed it more than ever.
I flopped down next to her on the sofa and she pulled me in for one of her famous Lori hugs. I let her warmth soothe my sadness, but her familiarity made the floodgates open and I burst into tears.
“Oh, baby girl. What’s happened?”
“He broke my heart, Mum.”
“Who did?”
“Matt.”
“Matt? Huge bodyguard, Matt?” she asked, sounding surprised.
I nodded as I sniffled into her shoulder. “I thought he loved me, but he’s married.”
“Married? Really? He doesn’t strike me as the secretly married type. He always seemed so nice.”
My sobs turned into a loud wail.
“Sorry, sweetie. He’s a cad. A lying, cheating cad and we hate him. Is that better?”
I nodded again, sniffing loudly.
“I’ve known him years, Mum, and he didn’t even mention a wife. Not once. He’s never gone home. I’ve never seen him taking secret phone calls. I had no idea. And now if anyone finds out, I’m going to be painted as a home wrecker and I didn’t even know there was a home to wreck.”
“You said you thought he loved you. Did you love him too?”
I didn’t even try to hide the tears that streamed down my face as I thought about how I felt about Matt.
“Oh, sweet girl, come here.”