Page 106 of Unraveled

“Do you, Anna?” My voice barked, making her flinch. “Do you love him?!” I bellowed when she remained silent. “Answer me!”

She jumped at the hostility I’d never used with her before. “Yes.”

I backed away, my bleeding heart plunging into the pit of my stomach as I fought the urge to be sick.

“Nicky.” Anna stepped closer, pity in her voice. One hand reached out for me as the other tried to readjust the sheet. It fell open in the back, and I didn’t miss how Enzo’s eyes fell to where onlymineshould have been allowed to look.

I pulled Anna to the side and backed her against the wall where Enzo couldn’t see or hear anything between us. She was mine. God, she was supposed to bemine! “Tell me it’s not true,” I pleaded into her ear.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“Then tell me you still loveme. We can still work this out. Please, Anna, give me something to hold on to.” My breaths were desperate as tears mottled in my throat.

She shook her head feverishly. “We never meant to hurt you.”

“By shagging inourbed, you never meant to hurt me?!”

“We didn’t,” Enzo said, still across the room. “You weren’t supposed to be home. You weren’t supposed to find out like this.”

“As if finding out another way would have been better?!” I bit over my shoulder and looked again at Anna, her beauty striking me even now with her tear-stained cheeks. “How many times was Inotsupposed to be home? How long has this been going on?”

Her gaze held mine, never wavering. “This was the first time.”

I pounded a fist against the wall by her head, my jaw clenching as agony rushed through every vein in my body. I shook my head. Still not able to comprehend it. “Why?” I lowered my voice to plead into her ear. “Why would you do this to me? How could you do this to me? Tous?I love you.”

“You love yourwork.”

“I loveyou!” I pounded my fist again. “I came home early to surprise you.”

“Today, maybe. But what about every other day, Nic? What about all the times I’m left here without you while you go off to play at that stupid software with Mark? You’ve changed. You never make time for us anymore. You’re obsessed with your work. It’s so bloody important to you that you couldn’t even ignore your sodding mobile on ouranniversary! On a night that I was begging,pleadinginside for you to put me first, you made it all about you and your work,again. Thatwas the deciding factor. I couldn’t take it anymore. It was the last time I was going to let you disappoint me. Your last chance to prove yourself, and you threw it away like rubbish. Ifeltmyself fall out of love with you that night.”

I jolted, my brain stuttering for a moment over the shock of her last statement. “So, what? You turned to Enzo? Mybestmate? The one bloke I would’ve ever trusted to stay in our home?”

Bloody joke’s on me there.

Anger rushed over Anna’s expression, and she tiptoed, leaning up to me as she pointed at her chest. “He was there for me!Youhaven’t been for months! Enzo and I have a connection. From the moment I met him, I felt it. I tried to pull away. I could feel it happening, but–”

“But what? But you couldn’t tell me that you wanted to shag my best friend?!”

“But I just couldn’t fight it anymore! Not after I knew what we had was over.”

“And you?” I looked at Enzo.Tell me I’m not so oblivious that I missed it fromboth of them.

Enzo shook his head as he met my stare. “I felt it, too.” He shrugged like it was helpless. “I tried to fight it. I didn’t want to hurt you, but my feelings for her grew too strong to ignore. Especially when I knew she’d given up on you.”

I didn’t know what to do. What to say. I was losing my whole reason for living. Rubbing my hand across my chest, I felt the sting hit my heart again, and the small, square lump in my inner coat pocket pressed against my ribs. The knife they’d jabbed firmly in my heart twisted. My entire future I’d envisioned with Anna was being torn to shreds. My world that encompassed two of the most important people in my life unraveling at my feet.

I ducked my head as a fresh flood of tears broke through the gates. “Anna, please, baby.” I looked deep into those eyes that had mesmerized me every day for years now, pleading to see some speck of what she’d once felt for me returned. “It can’t be over. Please.”

Her expression turned tender, and she reached up to stroke her fingers through my hair as her other hand wiped away one of my tears. “I’m sorry. I’mreallysorry you found out like this. Idocare about you. I always will. The last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt.”

I lowered my voice to a whisper, knowing if I spoke any louder it would break. “What about last night? Was that nothing to you?” It had been everything to me. It had proved to me we’d be okay.

“It was goodbye,” she whispered back.

Ripping myself from the memory, I dug my fingers down into the damp sand around me and smacked my head back against the pole at my back. I didn’t want to remember anymore. That goodbye hadn’t let me say goodbye at all. I still remembered every perfect second ofit. It haunted my dreams, taunting me, making me want to lose myself in the one thing on this earth I knew could help numb the pain and forget that sodding goodbye, even if it was only temporary.

Arrrgh! Will the pain of it ever pass? Will I ever be able to forget her? Will I ever be able to care about anyone else even afractionof the amount that I did about her?

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