Page 91 of Stolen Moments

His words are like a shot to the chest.Fiancée?

I shake my head. I can’t have heard that right. “What did you say?”

“I’m sorry, did you not know?” He looks at Emery, a look of confusion on his face.

“Lex, what are you doing?” Emery shakes her head as she sobs into her hand, tears pouring down her face.

Every insecurity, every hint of doubt I’ve pushed away since laying eyes on her comes rushing back, and a pain like I’ve never felt slices through my heart as I watch them talk. The words don’t register as the beat of my bleeding heart pounds in my ears.

This guy isn’t lying—he’s her fiancé.

All the hints she’s dropped over the last six months hit me. How the fuck did I not see the signs? They were all there.

The way she walked away that first day and tried to tell me we couldn’t be serious when I saw her again. Her resistance and mood swings when things got a little intense. The way she never spoke about this place. It’s no wonder—she was harboring a whole separate life. Another man.

Her small palm squeezes my hand, and I rip it out of her grip, away from her touch, my skin searing as if burned from the contact.

“Mason, listen to me, please,” Emery pleads.

Bile rises in my throat. “Is he telling the truth? Is he your fiancé?”

Please say no, baby.

My heart pounds in my chest as I turn to the guy, looking for answers. He has enough sense to keep his mouth shut as the woman I thought I knew shatters my soul.

Rather than denying it, she shakes her head while her words betray her, and she croaks out, “It’s complicated.”

Her answer cuts through me like butter, flaying me open. I’m at a loss. I don’t know what to say. All I know is that I need to get the fuck out of here. Fast.

I spin away from her and make my way to the stairs. Lex steps to the side, avoiding eye contact.

That’s right, motherfucker.

Anger courses through my veins, looking for an escape. She fucking played me. How could I be so stupid?

I’m halfway down the dock when fireworks scream their ascent and explode above, the sounds of their release reverberating in thenight sky. Colors flash and sparkle as I quickly stride away from everything I thought I had in the grasp of my hand.

“Mason!” Emery screams.

I stop on instinct at the sound of her distress.

She rushes in front of me and presses her hands to my aching, hollow chest. The one she just took a melon baller to.

“Please don’t go. I need you to listen to me. It’s not what you think.”

I shake my head. “No. We have been together for seven months. Seven. You had plenty of time to come clean. To talk to me. You promised me no secrets.”

“I know—”

“You lied!” I bellow, heaving, my anger taking over. “You fucking lied to me, Emery. Everything I thought I knew about you was a lie. Everything we’ve built was a fucking lie.”

“No, it wasn’t. You know me. You’re the only one that does.”

I scoff, waving my arms around. “Sorry to break the news to you, baby doll,” I mock, using the endearment now to hurt her. “But I don’t know anything about you.”

“This is nothing. This…” She swivels her head around the acres of land and the giant elegant home. “It means nothing to me, Mason. You mean everything to me. Everything.”

My heart wants to believe her, but my head is screaming at me to run, reminding me that she lied for months about being engaged to another man.

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