Page 65 of The Pucking Fake Marriage

It can’t be. It just can’t be.

And yet, it makes perfect sense. More sense than the story I’ve been holding close to my heart for the last ten years.

The reason I cut Ken out of my life a decade ago.

It was not Ken. It was Kali all along. He’d set up Ken, knowing that I would see the weights and assume it was his brother. He did it when he walked out of the room, before Ken came in. It was a cunning plan, especially considering that Ken was about to tell me how he felt about me that same night. He threw his girl and his own brother under the bus and stomped on the accelerator.

And I was right there with him. Hating Ken. Thinking that the person who loved me the most in the world would be capable of causing me such pain. Maybe I even wanted it to be true, to make up for the fact that I didn’t necessarily believe anyone could love me without any strings attached.

At the end, I treated Ken even worse than his family ever did. He always expected them to mistrust him without cause. But I shut him out without even seeking an explanation. I believed the worst of him for no damn reason.

I’m not even aware that I’m crying until I feel tears spilling down my cheeks.

“No,” someone mutters. I wipe my tears away to look. It’s Elizabeth, who’s staring at Ken again. “No. I just can’t believe Kali would do something that awful to Charlotte. Helovedher. He would never have done that.”

Ken’s shoulders sag. “But I would?”

There’s a deathly quiet as Ken looks at his parents’ faces. They say nothing, merely stare back. His gaze roams over the crowd, most of whom are also silent. Their backs are turned to me, and I can’t see their expressions. Yet, I get the sense that most of them are thinking,that’s a lot more probable than Kali doing it. You’re the violent one.

Ken, eternally scorned. Even on the verge of proving his innocence.

My heart breaks into pieces. I want to go to him, to tell him I believe him. But I’m way more undeserving thananyone else here. He should hate me a lot more than Kali. My betrayal was worse.

The stillness lasts for a full thirty seconds. And then Ken mutters, “Fine. Think what you want.”

Then he shoulders out of the scene the way he came, leaving a ringing hush in his wake.

And also leaving in his wake, very much in the manner of Ken, my own heart shattered into a million little pieces.

NINETEEN

LOVE AS AN ACTION (CHARLIE)

I wake up to a hammering on my door, one so loud and forceful, it literally knocks me out of bed.

“What?” I scream. I pick myself up from the floor as I rub my eyes and look around my bedroom. It’s the one I shared with Haley before everything happened. Right now, it looks more like a mess than it ever has. Wrappings of cookies and chips are strewn all around the comforter and the floor, crumb stains on the sheets, and my half-open laptop, still replayingThe Breakfast Club.It’s the movie I’ve been rewatching all week.

All things considered, it’s been a fantastic few days.

My door is still being hammered. I look toward the noise, hate brewing inside me. I know Haley is my friend and she always means well, but fucking hell, if she could leave me alone for two seconds I’d be the happiest person on earth.

I stumble to the door and drag it open. Haley has stuffed herself into the narrow hallway. She’s fully dressed for work and actually has the audacity to glower at me.

“What?” I spit. All I want is to slam the door in her faceand stomp back to bed. It’s either that or burst into tears…again. Because the only two emotions I’m capable of summoning now are intense despair or intense rage.

Despair was easy enough to understand, if not to feel. But what I’m angry about, I don’t know.

“What?” Haley repeats, her eyes popping with surprise. “You promised to come with me to the restaurant today, remember?”

I scrunch my brows, dimly remembering a conversation I had with her the night before, after she waded through the mess in my room and gave me a tongue-lashing for not showing up to work in days. Apparently, someone leaked the news about a famous superstar visiting my restaurant, and the place has been bursting to capacity all week long. I don’t even care. I just want to stay in my room.

“I’ll come to the restaurant today.” I’m lying, and I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help myself. “I’m just too exhausted right now. I’ll take a nap and then join you.”

Haley raises a brow. “Come join me when?It’s four in the afternoon, Charlie. Plus, literally all our employees have been calling me back-to-back for the last thirty minutes. There’s an emergency or something, one I don’t want to attend to by myself.”

I stare at her. And then, for absolutely no reason, I feel tears well in my eyes.

Oh, fuck. Now this is what I hate most about despair.

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