Page 98 of Crushed By Love

And then he’s quiet, like he knows I have to process not being his Juliet afterall. It takes a full minute for me to calm myself. “Go on.”

He nods once and stays standing there in the middle of the room as he quietly explains himself. “It’s true that I wasn’t over Sybil when I first met you.” My heart twists at the confession. Hearing it confirmed makes it all so much more real. “But there’s so much more to the story. I wish I could change some of the things that happened that summer. I fucking hate myself for the way I treated you.”

“Can you get to the part where you explain why you didn’t tell me who I was?” I’m back to angry, but part of me knows that’s only because I don’t want to face all the other emotions bubbling under the surface. Anger is easy. Anger is safe.

Rejected? Hurt? Passionate? Hopeful?

Not going there.

“I suspected the family connection. You look so much like Sybil. But your background didn’t make sense to be a Laurence. Plus, you’re built so much smaller than the rest of them. I thought it was a coincidence and let it go.” He steps closer again. “My father was the one to confirm it but he didn’t tell me until that last morning. You were asleep when he called to let me know that not only did he know you were at the house with me, but that you were related to the Laurences.” He swallows hard and I track the bob of his Adam’s apple in his throat. “All summer he had been encouraging me to hook up with you. He said he felt bad about what had happened with Sybil so when your application and photo came through the system, and Malory showed him the resemblance, he insisted we hire you.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t trust a word he said. I still don’t trust his reasons, to be honest.”

My gut clenches, my suspicions confirmed. Whatever Conrad’s true intentions were, the fact remains that I wasn’t really qualified for the job I was hired to do. I was there to fill an entirely different role.

Stupid me. I played that role exactly as Conrad wanted.

“He was the one who thought I needed to sleep with you to get her out of my system. I promise, that was never my plan.” He says this last bit so adamantly that I let myself believe him. God knows I shouldn’t, but I do anyway. “That last morning together, he called to demand I take you to him,” he finishes. “That’s when I knew he had nefarious plans for you.”

I blink rapidly, trying to make sense of this. “But why would he want me to go to him?”

“Could be for a multitude of reasons but I’m sure it was to use you against his enemy. I still don’t know what his plan was and I don’t care. He’s ruthless when it comes to Gregory Laurence. He’d do anything to hurt your uncle for what he did to our family. I’m serious, Arden. Anything.”

“Your mother was part of that too, though.” I point out. “It takes two to have an affair.”

He grimaces and I sense he’s fighting anger because his eyes are hard. “I know,” he admits. “And Conrad has accountability too. He may have been physically loyal to my mother as far as I know, but emotionally he was a shitty husband, not that he’ll never admit it. Why do you think he’s already on his third wife?” So that’s who that woman at the party tonight was, the new wife. I wonder what happened to Malory, but then again, I don’t really care. She was just as awful as the rest of them. “Anyway, I couldn’t take you to him and let him turn you into some pawn for his revenge game, so I took you to Boston as promised.”

“But you still didn’t tell me the truth.”

“And I should have, but I was embarrassed when you said it was Cooper you wanted all along. My pride got in the way.”

“I was lying,” I confess, ashamed of myself. “I’m sorry. I was hurt and wanted to hurt you back. Didn’t you realize that was a lie?”

“I did. I knew it then and I know it now, but you have to understand that although Cooper and I have always been best friends, we’ve also always been in direct competition. Maybe it’s a twin brother thing or maybe it’s a King family thing, but it’s just how our relationship works. When you said that you wanted him and I was your second choice, it was easier to believe you.” He reaches up and rakes a hand through his hair, letting it fall back down in a dark tumble. “I mean, he did get you naked.”

My cheeks heat. “That was a mistake. I never should’ve done that.”

“I know. He knew it too. Why do you think he gave you up so quickly? I told him he couldn’t take your virginity unless he was willing to actually date you and be exclusive for the rest of the summer. You can imagine how that went over.”

Coop never wanted to be my boyfriend and that should hurt but it doesn’t. Cooper wasn’t the one I wanted. He wasn’t then and he isn’t now. Same as he didn’t want me for more than a one-time hook-up and maybe to prove something to his brother.

Again, Ethan steps closer. I’m still frozen, standing by the lamp with the warm light basking the bedroom in a gentle glow. I’m still unable to move away whenever Ethan is near. He’s still my gravity. He’ll always be my gravity . . .

“I realized something bigger that day though,” he continues. “You always wanted a family and this was your chance. Being with me would’ve taken that away from you. It’s no secret that the Laurences and the Kings hate each other. You couldn’t have dated me while also getting to know your new family. Here you were about to embark on this new life at college, the whole world at your fingertips, and now you were going to be a Laurence too. I couldn’t take that away from you, so I took you to Boston instead and then I called Gregory myself.”

Of all the things he could have said, I never expected it would be that. “You called my uncle?”

“Turns out Amelia and Greg had already found out about Sybil’s doppelganger working for the King family. Word got out. They obtained genetic confirmation without your consent.”

“I already know about that,” I mumble.

I still don’t know exactly how they did it, but money can move mountains. I never asked for the specifics. My guess is they hired one of the twins’ friends or Cooper’s girls to secure it when they were visiting the house. It wouldn’t have been hard to steal a hair sample out of my bathroom. Whoever did it, I’m honestly grateful. They changed my life for the better.

“Thing was, they couldn’t find you after the results came in. They didn’t know you were still hiding out at the Nantucket house. I was the one to let them know what hotel you were going to be in. I demanded they get to you right away.”

And they did . . . “The very next day I met them and my whole life changed, but that wasn’t before I got picked up by the cops for trespassing on your property.”

He’s displayed practically every emotion since we’ve been talking, but the anger simmering under the surface finally boils over. No anger, complete loathing. It pours out of his voice, fills his eyes, corrupts his entire demeanor. “My father pressed charges against you when I didn’t bring you to him like he’d asked. It was a way to punish us both. He didn’t tell me it was happening. Cooper and I didn’t know about it right away or I swear to God we would’ve intervened, Arden. But the charges were dropped, weren’t they?”

“Months later, only after I got my uncle involved.”

---