Page 91 of Things We Burn

And maybe part of the reason why I’d believed Brax so readily was because I didn’t believe that Kane and I would last. And because I knew that I wouldn’t survive him rejecting me to my face.

“He knew about Vermont,” I told him, putting my hands on my hips. Maybe I had some blame in all of this, but I wasn’t just about to submit. Pregnant or not, I had a backbone, and I was suddenly ready for a fight. Suddenly, I was ready for war.

Something skated over the outrage on Kane’s face, rippled past it. Confusion? Shock? Who knew? I didn’t have it in me to inspect Kane’s expressions. Not when they were so full of contempt.

“You told him about Vermont, and he said it was a story you told all your … women,” I continued, failing to keep the jealous bite from my voice.

It was better than the pathetic heartbreak that had been seeping from my every cell.

“And the note telling me to get rid of it was in your handwriting.”

Kane stood there, staring, waiting. I didn’t say anything else.

“That’s it?” he eventually asked quietly. “That’s all it took for you to give up on me, on us? To run away and take my child from me?” There was a slight snarl to his lip. He felt betrayed. “You didn’t try to see me? Didn’t talk to Victoria? I informed her directly that all decisions were yours to make.”

I released my chewed-up lip to reply. “Victoria was out of reach when I found out.”

“How long, Avery?” he screeched. “How long was she out of reach for? Did you wait one day, two? Did she call you back?”

I opened my mouth then closed it, unable to answer the rapidly asked questions, shot at me like bullets from a gun.

“I know she called you back because she fuckin’ told me, after Brax delivered the news that you were gone,” he seethed. “That you’d left me. I got in touch with Victoria, told her to find you because I might’ve been blind to what a complete piece of shit Brax is, but I knew not to trust the motherfucker with something so precious.”

Something so precious. Me. Us.

He wasn’t looking at me like I was precious.

“Did she call you back, Avery?” he asked, indignation carving off every word so they were pointed.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. The rain pounded louder now, the smell of the storm assaulting my senses, mingling with Kane’s ire that was more powerful than the storm itself.

“You don’t know?” he repeated, sounding so cold. Cruel. “How is it you couldn’t know if your one connection with me,the father of your fuckin’ baby, called you back?”

“I changed my number,” I answered, my voice shrinking more with every moment.

“You changed your number.” Again, repeating my answer in that tone.

I was looking down at the pots on either side of my front door. Distressed gray with dying blooms sitting in them because Kiera had arranged them, planted them, then demanded I keep them alive. As if doing anything beyond keeping myself and a baby thriving was doable.

“Look at me.” The command was harsh, razor sharp.

If words could make you bleed, I would’ve been dripping on the floor.

Despite the pain, despite fearing I wouldn’t be able to handle his gaze, I obeyed his command. And the disdain on his face shredded me further.

“Why would you break every thread you had connecting you to me on the word of one asshole?” he asked carefully.

A bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face. “Because someone leaked it, my number. I was getting calls, texts, death threats.” It wasn’t a lie. And it was awfully convenient that my number leaked right after my visit to Brax, before Victoria was able to get back to me.

I was suddenly realizing what was so glaringly obvious, it was worse than a ‘twist’ in a poorly-written detective novel.

Kane twitched at the ‘death threats’ part.

“It was all Brax.” Shame spilled over me at my stupidity. “He orchestrated it all. To get me away. For whatever reason.”

Not for whatever reason. I’d come between him and Kane. I’d seen him for what he was. So he’d wanted to punish me. Ruin me.

“Yeah,” Kane said in a dead voice. “And you made it fuckin’ easy for him. You didn’t fight for us.”

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