Page 15 of Unbreak My Heart

“What?” Melanie shouts, which has the people nearby looking at us once again.

“Calm down,” Rebecca says to her, and then turns to me. “How are you?”

I want to cry, because she knows how much him being here is affecting me, even if I’m trying my best to stay strong.

“I’m not sure. I’m happy to know he’s still alive, but . . .” I let my voice die, because I’m not sure if he’d want me to share with others what he went through.

“What’s wrong?”

Melanie stays silent, letting Rebecca do the talking, and knowing right now they’ll get more out of me if they use honey instead of blunt force.

“I found him. Or more accurately, I stumbled over him. He’d been beaten up and was lying on the ground. I’m not sure who did that to him, but he was in bad shape.” Of course, I spilled the beans in zero-point-three seconds. I can’t keep a secret from my family.

“How is he now?” Melanie asks, at the same time Rebecca asks her own question, and I couldn’t love her any more than I do.

“How are you?” she asks, covering my hand with hers. She, more than anyone, knows how devastated I was when he disappeared. I cried until I was sick, and then cursed him for going away. Then cried even more because he wasn’t there with me.

“I’m okay.” But my voice is as uncertain as my feelings, and when Rebecca grips my hand in hers, I nearly cry.

Gael has fucked me up again.

I sniffle the tears away, square my shoulders, and reply to Rebecca.

Deep breath. Remember, you don’t care!

“He’s still in hospital, recovering. They did a good job on him.”

“Was he mugged?”

“Mm, I don’t think so.” For the first time, there’s something I don’t want to share with my family. What I think happened to him is horrible, and makes my insides quiver with the need to expel what I’ve just eaten. What a fucked-up world.

What are the reasons behind his situation?

Nope, I’m not getting involved. He asked me to go, and this is me going. Gone.

“What are you going to do?” they both ask.

“What? Me? It doesn’t have anything to do with me.” Yep, I like that. Short and sweet.

Two sets of raised brows greet me when I look up at them, and I’d have laughed if it wasn’t so upsetting.

“I’m not going there.” Why do I sound more like a petulant child instead of a grown-up?

“Why?” they ask, in tandem again.

“Because he’s nothing to me.” I resist the need to touch my face to make sure I haven’t transformed into Pinocchio. Nope, all good. My nose is still the same length and I’m not made of wood.

“That’s so not you,” Melanie says this time.

“Yes, today it is,” I say, piqued. Knowing damn well it’s not like me to be this stubborn when people I love are in need. But he hurt me so much in the past, and again yesterday, when instead of talking to me he sent me away.

“Cam, you’re a caring man with a big heart. And at this time of year, you’re selfless even more than ever. You saved a man from near death, and now you don’t want to spend time with a friend?”

“That’s not the Cam we know and love,” Melanie adds, as if what Rebecca said isn’t enough to make me feel like shit.

“But he . . . But I . . .” I stop, because there is no comeback for the truth they’re shoving in my face.

I’m a softie, but that doesn’t mean I have to forgive him, or be there for him when he’s pushing me away.

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