Page 60 of Instant Bond

My hand twitched at my side, like it instinctively wanted to reach out to him. But he could barely stand to look at me, let alone be touched by me.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“That’s bull,” he countered, giving me an incredulous look. “You purposely left all of this out when I asked about him. You told me you went to school with him.”

“I did go to school with him.”

“Yeah, and you also almost hooked up with him. Oh, and let me not forget this part, he’s fucking stalking you!”

“I didn’t want you to worry. I wanted to take care of it.”

“Karter, didn’t you think this was something I needed to know? Like, for one second did you ever consider that I would want to know that some guy is obsessed with my boyfriend and taking it out on me?”

“Taking it out on you?” I repeated, my brows furrowing together. “Why would you say that? He’s just pissed that I keep turning him down. He wants me to be miserable.”

Cameron stared at me for a few seconds. “You don’t know, do you? Is that why it’s not on your stupid list?”

“What are you talking about? Did Lucas say something to you?”

He stood up, pulling a folded piece of paper from his pocket and shoving it into my hands. While I unfolded it, he was scrolling through something on his phone. It was the eviction notice from his old apartment.

“What does this have to do with anything?” I asked.

“See that?” He said, pointing down at the bottom of the paper, where the name of the company was displayed.

“So?”

“So, this.” He handed me his phone. It was on a web page about the company on the notice. The company was owned by Cromwell Corp. My hand trembled. I was totally speechless. “That’s his company, right?”

“It’s his parents’ company,” I said. “But if he told them he wanted it, for whatever reason, they would do it. He’s completely spoiled. How long have you known about this?”

“I wasn’t hiding it from you, if that’s what you’re implying,” he responded bitingly. “I didn’t know if it had anything to do with him or not and I didn’t want to accuse him without proof.But I would have figured it out a lot fucking sooner if I’d known he was obsessed with you.”

I dropped my weight onto the couch, letting the paper fall beside me. “Cameron, I had no idea. I swear.”

My mind was racing with the new knowledge. I knew Lucas wasn’t used to being told no, but I’d never considered that he would go that far.

“Look, I don’t care if you knew or not. You’ve been keeping all this from me and for what?!” His voice raised a bit, surprising me. I’d never heard a snap of temper in his voice before. He was really upset with me. “Because you think I’m some helpless little omega that can’t handle some bad news? You have to shield me from everything?”

“No,” I denied. “That’s not it.”

“In case you suddenly forgot who I am,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “I’ve been through more shit in my life than you ever will, rich boy.”

“Rich boy?” I repeated, a shocked laugh tumbling out of my mouth. It was probably the worst thing I could have done, but I hadn’t expected him to say something like that.

“You think this is funny?” He snapped. He was definitely seething now. Maybe coming home hadn’t been the best option.

“No!” I said quickly, shaking my head. “Cameron, listen to me. You’ve got it all wrong.”

“Explain it to me then,” he invited, crossing his arms over his chest. “Tell me why you decided that lying to my face was a better idea than being honest with me.”

My muscles clenched. I wanted to be anywhere but there. I didn’t want to explain my feelings about the situation. I’d tried being honest with my mother, and she’d only ridiculed me. But as much as I dreaded that, the idea of lying to Cameron again was worse.

“I can explain,” I started. “But you have to understand where I’m coming from, too. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You know I would never intentionally hurt you.”

His face softened, fractionally. So he was at least somewhat willing to hear me out. That helped ease my nerves a bit.

“I know that.”

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