Page 94 of Undeniable

Forrest stopped midsentence and nodded. “Yeah, remember? We didn’t know exactly what was said because they were all drunk, but the guys do remember talking about you and James saying something about how easy it would be to—I don’t know. He said something like it would be easy to get you to sleep with him. It was a long time ago.”

I nodded. “Yes, but you told me Brendon heard him.Brendontold me he heard him talking about it.”

Forrest’s eyes widened slightly, and then he hung his head. His confession was so quiet I barely heard his words over the sudden roaring in my ears.

“He didn’t. We both… we were both trying to protect you and knew you’d be less likely to wind up back with James if we told you someone you trusted heard him say it. And you trusted Brendon.”

I backed up a step and ran into a barstool. How could this have happened? How could I have been so stupid as to take their word for it?

The room was spinning, and I felt like I was going to collapse at any second. Forrest kept talking, but his voice sounded far off like he was yelling at me from another dimension and only part of his voice found its way to me.

“I know now that what we did was incredibly wrong, but Ives, it would’ve ended badly. There was no way y’all were going to make it, and I think it says something that you so easily believed he was the bad guy. I just didn’t want you getting hurt more than I already knew you would. And ending it sooner was better—”

“How,” I interrupted him, and he was startled at my tone. “How would you know that it was better for me? You—you made everything so much worse.”

He shook his head and stepped toward me, but I reflexively stepped backward even though I had nowhere to go.

“I was trying to protect you.”

“Fine, that may have been your intention, but you were mostly thinking about yourself. What I wanted or needed was only secondary to your protective bullshit.”

He glanced down at his worn, brown boots, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and nodded his agreement before he said, “Yes, I was. I didn’t want to see you more hurt than you already were and I did what I thought was best. When you didn’t believe it, I was going to tell you that I’d heard him say it, but I’d already told you the truth. And I knew the next best option was to tell you that Brendon heard it. Brendon was just as worried about you as I was and didn’t hesitate to lie to you…”

The sob started deep in my chest. I tried to breathe through my nose to suppress it, but my effort was futile against the realization that I’d never known the entire truth. Years and years of pent-up emotions threatened to tumble out.

I didn’t think it would matter that much, but it did. Whether Forrest and Brendon had done what they did, James still hadn’t fought for me. He hadn’t planned to come back to Willowwood in the first place and maybe he wouldn’t have had I not confronted him about the rumor.

But if Forrest and Brendon hadn’t meddled, maybe there would’ve been a better chance. It was hard to think about what I would’ve done, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it would’ve changed something. Or everything.

“You were thriving without him,” he said with conviction before glancing up at me. “And he was going to break your heart sooner or later. He wasn’t even planning on coming back anyway, so what did it matter? I intervened because it was better for you to move on, and that’s exactly what you did!”

He was nearly shouting, and I couldn’t refrain from shouting back at my twin. Brendon’s part in the scheme hurt. We’d been together for years and he hadn’t uttered a word about it. He’d asked me to marry him knowing that he’d lied to me for years. But Forrest’s betrayal was unthinkable. He was the one person above everyone else I should’ve been able to trust.

“But that’s not what happened!”

“Yes, it is! You didn’t say another word about him and you went back to college perfectly fine. I didn’t see you shed one tear about him! And neither did Shelby because I asked her to keep an eye on you.”

My anger twisted into something more tart, like betrayal. Shelby wouldn’t have told him the number of times I stayed awake at night crying or just staring at the wall. Or the hours she spent holding me while I cried on the floor of our dorm. She wouldn’t have told him about the nightmares or the week of practices I had to miss when I returned.

“I was numb, Forrest. I was…grieving.” My own voice sounded foreign to my ears. Actually, my entire body felt like it wasn’t sitting right in my skin.

“Grieving what exactly, Ivy? Grievinghim?”

And the words I’d kept bottled up for years finally escaped. In an even tone that sharply contrasted with his bitter one, I simply said, “I was grieving the loss of our baby.”

Like I’d physically hit him, Forrest stumbled back. And I watched all the fight drain from him.

“Your… your baby? You were…”

“Pregnant, yes,” I breathed.

“What?” Forrest’s eyes shot from mine to the person who’d spoken behind me. And the instant regret that crossed his face told me all I needed to know about who’d walked in.

THIRTY-TWO

Ivy

I’d imaginedthe moment so many times and in so many different ways. The moment that James found out I’d been pregnant when we’d had our falling out was one I considered more often than I cared to admit.

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