“What are you talking about?” I stepped toward him, getting on my knees in front of him. “All you’ve done since the second you’ve been back in my life is help me, Adrian.” I held his hands. “Who knows where I’d be if it weren’t for you.”
“Wrong time to be thanking me, Paige.”
“Adrian…”
“I always knew I’d hurt you.”
I stopped breathing.
This was going to cause damage.
Severely.
“I couldn’t stop myself from being with you, but I always knew it’d end up badly between us. I’m a selfish fucking bastard. I take. It’s how I’m made.”
My lips parted as my lungs tried to breathe.
“I thought about you every single day. You know that don’t you?”
“Why does it feel like you’re saying goodbye to me?”
“The picture on my nightstand.”
I sucked in a breath, waiting on his every word.
“I loved that dress on you. I was with Cade when he bought it for your birthday. I was the one who picked it out for you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, remembering, “Oh my God. That was taken on my sixteenth birthday. How did I forget that?”
“When you came out of the bathroom wearing it, I had to get a picture of us, but I never thought Cade would jump in it. I played it off like it wasn’t a big deal. I perfected it over the years. I never let you see what I didn’t want you to. It’s the only way I survived us.”
“Adrian, please…” I begged for I don’t know what.
The truth beneath his lies?
“I kept that picture for one reason and one reason only.”
This blast exploded right in my face when he added, “It was the moment I realized I was in love with you, and always had been.”
I fell back onto the floor, unable to handle the impact of his blow.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be the man you needed me to be until now.”
I watched as he stood tall, looming over my small frame like a dark shadow when he was supposed to be the light.
With each step that brought him closer to the door, I felt a little more of myself disappear. I thought he was going to leave me. I never expected how he’d betray me this time…
It wasn’t through his lies or actions.
It wasn’t through the women in his life.
It wasn’t through our past or future.
His purgatory came in the form of my biggest demon.
Adrian opened the door, and I came face to face with…
His brother.
Twenty-Five
Paige
Seeing Cade for the first time in over a decade immediately had tears streaming down my face. My best friend grew up. No longer the nineteen-year-old boy standing before me. In his place stood a man, who looked handsome as ever.
I saw every smile we ever shared.
Every laugh.
Every time he told me he loved me, and I was his best friend for life. No matter what…
It was me and him.
The memories of our past fell on top of my head like the rain of a thunderstorm, destroying everything in its path.
I tried to stay in the moment, the present, but my mind wouldn’t let go of the past. Not when the both of them were standing in front of me for the first time since Cade found out the truth about us. They were standing a few feet apart, the same way they were now.
Fucking murderous.
Their screams.
My cries.
Their all-out war.
It was grenades and bullets aimed at each other and none of us made it out of their alive.
Adrian and I were over before we even began.
I sat there on the balls of my feet, holding myself up when all my body longed to do was fall apart. The two most important men in my life were finally standing there with me and it was worse than I could have ever imagined.
The expression on Cade’s face mirrored my own.
He was holding onto so much hurt.
Resentment.
Hate.
I wanted to run to him. I wanted to beg for his forgiveness. I’d do anything to have our friendship back. A huge part of me died the day he found out the truth. I didn’t just lose the love of my life. I lost a guy who felt more like my family than my own did.
There was so much I wanted to say.
But all I could do was feel.
I cried for the innocence we all lost and the scars we had to carry for all these years. Adrian was right. This did make me hate him more than I already did, but it also made me…
Love him.
I was the first to break the deafening silence. “Don’t you think I deserved to know Cade was coming, Adrian?”
“It’s easier this way.”
“For whom?”
“For you, Paige. I only did this for you.”
Our eyes locked.
“Regardless of what happens between us, I can’t compete with him for you anymore. It’s why we’re in this situation in the first place.”