Page 80 of Without Judgment

There it was. The whiny tone which made it tempting to tell him to go to hell. When my gaze landed on Mason, I found his eyes were blazing with temper.

My brother’s fist was clenched.

I let go of Edward’s hand. “You talk a lot about being sorry, Edward, but what you don’t talk about is taking responsibility for your actions. You want my forgiveness? Then you need to do the right thing, for once. You need to tell the authorities everything.”

“They might kill me next time.”

“They already think you’re a risk because of what you know. Your best bet is to cooperate with the authorities and hire protection. Get out of the state.” This came from Trevor, who made a good point.

Edward seemed to be mulling it over. Then he posed a question I wasn’t expecting.

“If I do this, tell the cops everything, will you take me back?”

I could’ve misled him in order to get his cooperation, but I wouldn’t. “No. But you would earn back some of my respect.”

“You don’t love me anymore. Do you?”

“No. But after all our years together, I’d prefer not to hate you. That’s up to you.”

I stepped back from the bed. I was done. Done with Edward. Done with this scandal. Done with being in this room one more second. I looked at my brother, already feeling the tears. “I want to leave.” My whisper was barely audible, but he heard me.

“Let’s go.”

Mason moved to open the door, his jaw clenched.

“Beth, wait.”

I stopped, wanting nothing more than to run away. Turning, I faced Edward for what I hoped would be the last time. “What is it?”

If he told me I’m sorry once more, I was likely to scream.

“Send the officers in. I’ll make my statement now.”

I let out a breath. “Thank you.”

Once we were out in the hall, Mason spoke. “Trevor, can you go tell the police to come in before he changes his mind? I’ll wait here with Avery.”

I half expected my brother to argue, but he simply reached out to squeeze my hand. “You did good in there.”

“Thanks.” I was emotional over the whole thing and not at all certain it was a good idea to be left alone with Mason. But neither did I have a good argument against it.

As soon as my brother was out of earshot, Mason took my hand and led me further down the hall to a small corner. It wasn’t private, but at least we weren’t in anyone’s way.

“You all right?”

I noticed he hadn’t let go of my hand. “I will be. Just tired of this whole thing.”

“It’s almost over.”

“I thought you needed to be in Austin for your work?”

“I did. I mean I do, but then I received a phone call about Edward and came straight here.”

Guess that made sense. But it didn’t help the fact that seeing him so soon after we’d said goodbye was messing with my ability to tell myself it was over between us.

“You do realize you don’t owe that asshole of an ex any favors. If you’d worn the wire, we’d have the confession we needed.”

“I’m well aware. But he said he’d give his statement voluntarily now.”

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