Page 45 of Trash the Dress

I cut him off and shout, “Because she was here, Zander! Because she told me she’s been sneaking into your house for years to have sex with you after you broke up. She said you never changed the locks so she could come and go whenever she wanted, and she said she saw you the other night at your bar. She said it was time for her to come back home to you.”

He stares at me in disbelief.

“She said you built this house for her, for the both of you together and that you never wanted kids. She said you’re doing the honorable thing with me…if this baby is even yours. Did you tell her you didn’t think he is?” I ask as my lip quivers.

He continues to stare at me in silence.

I nod to let him know I’m interpreting his silence as confirmation and then turn back to focus on my bag. In minutes I have some things packed and I move past him with it.

He follows me. “Scarlett, please don’t leave.”

I whirl around. “I’m not staying with someone who can’t or won’t communicate with me. Someone who is still in love with his ex and trying to hide because I’m pregnant.”

“I’m not in love with her, Scarlett,” he grits out with his jaw clenched tight.

“So, you’re just screwing her?”

He runs his hand through his hair in frustration. “No, I’m not.”

“But you have since you broke up?”

“No. I haven’t seen her at all or talked to her until she showed up at the bar the other night.”

Then it dawns on me. When the waitress came in to tell him someone was waiting, it was her. How could I be so stupid and trusting after what I just went through with Eric?

“And it just slipped your mind to tell me that your ex-fiancée was at the bar waiting on you while your pregnant girlfriend was in the kitchen?”

He almost winces when I ask like I’ve slapped him.

“I didn’t tell you she came because it didn’t matter. I was shocked since I haven’t seen her in so long. And I didn’t want it to worry you or stress you out for no reason because she is nothing to me,” he says quickly.

“I wouldn’t have worried. You told me how badly she hurt you, and I believed you when you promised to protect my heart. Instead, not telling me led to me being ambushed by her lounging on the bed we’ve been sharing half naked, and making claims she’s been screwing you all along and she’s ready to come back for good,” I tell him while shaking.

“Scarlett, this will never happen again. I’ll make sure it doesn’t,” he says as I watch his jaw pulse.

He moves toward me again, but I step back. His arms drop to his sides in defeat.

“Do you still love her?” I ask point-blank this time.

He just stares at me with not so much as a word uttered, so I turn to leave.

He reaches me and turns me back around. “No. I don’t.”

I’m barely holding it together now. “Do you have doubts about this baby being yours? Do you want us?” My chin wobbles as I wait for his answer…for him to prove my fears are unfounded. But nothing comes.

He glances at my pregnant belly and then back to my eyes. I give him about thirty seconds, and when he continues to stay silent, I choke out a sob and pull my arm free before fleeing his house as quickly as possible.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Zander

Ihaven’t slept a wink in two days. To say I was stunned by what happened the other night is an understatement. I was too stunned to speak or try to defend myself. Part of me was a little angry that after everything I’ve confided in her and the promise I made to keep her heart safe, she still didn’t trust me.

I’m still not happy she didn’t, but I see how it seemed bad. It’s true Vivian came to the bar, but I wasn’t lying when I said I’d not seen her since we broke up until she popped up there. That’s the one and only time I’ve been in the same room as her in years. But she has tried to reach me through text and calls in the last several months.

I just never dreamed she’d have the nerve to show her face after all this time. And I didn’t think I should tell Scarlett about it when I want nothing from Vivian. But a couple days without Scarlett have been lonely.

The power she has over me without even trying is something I never imagined a woman would be able to possess again. I never thought I’d give in to someone else.

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