Page 107 of The Forever Rule

“Do you love him?” she asked point blank, and I swallowed hard.

“I don’t know.” My voice was so small, that Isabella hugged me tightly.

“It’s okay not to know. And we can talk it out. Or you can talk it out with your parents, or someone. But you should. Because I love you.”

She kissed the tip of my nose, and I rolled my eyes.

“I love you too. But not like that.”

“No, you like another Cage,” she teased, and I shook my head, and we went to go get ready.

I pulled my phone out of my locker and frowned at the four messages from Garcia.

“Are you okay?” Sophia asked, and I nodded, pulling out my texts.

“Garcia texted a few times. I hope she’s okay.”

And then it felt as if ice slid through my veins.

Garcia:

I didn’t want to send this. I don’t think it’s my place, and I don’t think I’m doing you any good.

Garcia:

But others have seen, and I don’t want you to be in the dark. I’m here if you want to talk. I’m sorry.

And below that was a screenshot of a social media post, that made my knees go weak. Isabella’s arms went around my waist, as the others came forward.

“What’s wrong?” Sophia asked, as Isabella snatched the phone from my hand, letting me lean on Phoebe.

“I’m going to kill him,” Isabella snapped, and Greer took the phone from her.

“There has to be something wrong. This isn’t what it looks like,” Greer said softly, and Isabella put up her hand.

“You may have known him longer, but I don’t think we can deny what’s going on in this photo.”

They started arguing with each other, but I knew they weren’t mad at one another. No, they were mad at theman in the photo, with the woman crawling on him, with their mouths pressed together.

Aston was supposed to be on a work trip, and we were supposed to talk to each other tonight before he came home.

But instead, he stood on a balcony, with Meredith holding onto him, and with a kiss that seemed to shatter everything inside.

And as a single tear finally fell, I knew no amount of rage rooms were going to help. Nothing would.

Chapter Sixteen

ASTON

Rule #7: (Added by Aston) Break the rules.

My head achedand all I really wanted to do was take a shower and get into bed. The day had been long, full of travel delays, dead phones, and a lost charging cord. And, on the way home, it seemed that I hadn’t put the charging cord back in my car. Meaning I still had a dead phone as I walked into my house.

I was supposed to have been home six hours ago, but a thunderstorm in Dallas, complete with a lovely tornado, meant the entire country was dealing with weather-related issues with their flights. I was just glad everybody was safe, but I was exhausted.

I rubbed the back of my neck and plugged in my phone. I probably needed to look at the codependent relationship I had with it because I immediately relaxed when I saw it charging.

My brothers were still on the east coast and would be coming back tomorrow. At one point when I was on my layover, I was truly afraid they were going to make it home before I did. However, I was home, and I just wanted to talk to Blakely. I rubbed my hand over my chest, wondering why she was the first person I thought of.

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