Page 92 of Stolen Moments

Has she been with him the whole time?

Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick.

I lash out. “Yeah, well, you mean nothing to me.”

The blood drains from her face as she clutches her middle. The lie I spewed burns like acid on my tongue. Walls erect themselves around my heart, staunching the wound I’m about to inflict on us both.

“We’re over. Go back to your fiancé, Emery. Turns out, you do have someone to support afterall, and it isn’t me.”

A sob breaks from her body as I watch the woman I love crumble before me. My hands itch to hold her up, but I remind myself that she did this to us. She’s the one who lied. She’s the one who cut me first.

Rubbing at the pain in my chest, my eyes water. The need to hold her grips at the edges of my breaking heart as my conscience begs me to hear her out. I rush past her before I say or do something else that will hurt us. Hurt her.

I can’t console her when she’s the one that broke us. I need to protect myself, and her, by getting as far away as possible.

I race across the lawn, around the extravagant house, down the stone driveway, and out the wrought-iron gate. Every painful step away from her rips a piece of me apart. It’s like running away from home when you’re a kid—you know it’s wrong, but you do it anyway.

Ignoring the invisible string pulling me to her, begging me to go back, I keep walking. Leaving my home. Leaving pieces of me behind.

Chapter thirty-one

Emery

Strong arms wrap aroundmy waist as my knees give way and the man I love rushes away from me, leaving me broken.

“I got you, Emmy,” Lex soothes, his cologne invading my nose as a wave of nausea hits me.

The smell is wrong. His arms are wrong. Everything about this is all so wrong.

“No,” I cry, pushing him away.

It should be Mason, the man I love with every cell in my body, holding me up.

Sucking in a breath, I straighten my spine and wipe my face, turning on my oldest friend—the friend who promised to help me, not hurt me. “Why, Lex? Why did you do this?”

“I didn’t do anything we didn’t already agree on. This is how it has to be. You know that.” He sighs as his shoulders hunch.

I step back, shocked at his answer. When did he turn into this? He’s given up.

“No. This isn’t real.” I point between the both of us as tears cloud my vision and his betrayal weighs like a lead ball in my stomach.

“It can be.”

What fresh hell have I walked into? I know he doesn’t mean this.

“That’s not the deal we made, and you know it. I never interfered when you were with Lizzie.” I yell, my pain morphing into anger.

Lex looks around, but we’re alone; everyone has gathered on the blankets laid out at the edge of the lawn overlooking the Sound.

I bark a bitter laugh. “Really, Lex? Now you’re concerned with who hears us?”

Fireworks crack and pop overhead, no doubt keeping everyone’s attention.

Alexander has been my best friend since we were kids. We concocted this stupid plan when our parents sat us down to let us know we would be married after Lex graduated from business school. We were twenty-two and naïve, thinking we could change their minds. When they dangled Chris’s college fund over my head, threatening to cut him off if I didn’t agree to their terms, I didn’t know what else to do. I only agreed after Lex promised to get us out of this. Now, without a word, Lex has flipped the tables on me. I thought he was better than to fall for these games. To act on this insane plan.

Has he always wanted to run his family company? Yes. But enough to marry me? No.

I thought Elizabeth was his whole world. Hell, they’ve been together since high school. I know this entire debacle with our parents can’t be easy for him, but trying to make an arranged marriage with me isn’t going to help either of us. Especially when both our hearts belong to someone else.

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