Page 121 of The Forever Rule

“What?” she asked, the break in her voice nearly killing me.

“I need to figure out where my head is at. And while I’m doing so, I might hurt you. So it’d be good if we just took some time.”

“Why won’t youtalkto me? You always push me away, and I can’t take it anymore.”

“Blakely, I…” My voice trailed off.

“You know what, no.” I met her gaze, and there were no tears, just a lifted chin, and resignation in those eyes. “Just don’t call. It’s what you’re good at. Take your time to figure it out. Because I can’t do this. Because I know if I’m the one that pushes you, I’ll be the one that breaks. And I’m better than that. I truly hope you figure out what’s going on, Aston. Because you’re not going to talk to me. And I’m not going to fight when all I’ll do is end up broken.”

Some part of me screamed, shouted for me to reach out, to hold her, to tell her everything. But the other part, the one that sounded suspiciously like my father, told me to stay put. That this was the easiest way.

And so I didn’t say anything, and when that single tear tracked down her cheek, I didn’t brush it away.

Instead she got in her car, and drove off, and I let it happen. But it was for the best.

It needed to be.

Chapter Nineteen

ASTON

Rule #8: (Added by Aston) Forever might never be enough, but it’s always worth trying for.

I couldn’t quite believethat I was watching her drive away. Again, that part inside of me screaming to go after her, to get my head out of my ass, couldn’t make me move. Instead all I could do was repeat the words my father spoke.

It was better this way. I could get my head on straight, and I wouldn’t hurt her more than I already had.

I made my way back inside, only to come face to face with Hudson.

He glared at me and folded his arms over his chest. “Are you serious right now?” My taciturn brother whispered. His voice was laced with an edge that should have worried me.

“I just had a really shitty day. Don’t get on me.”

“Oh, we’re going to do that,” Dorian snapped, and I realized that everyone had come back from their perspective corners to stand in my living room, glaring at me.

“I don’t have time for this.”

“I think you have all the time in the world if you’re going to push the woman that you love out of your house and your life,” Theo snapped.

“I don’t…love her. It’s not like that.” And yet I could hear the lie in my tone.

I hadn’t let myself even think the word love. I liked being with her. I liked seeing her smile and I loved seeing how she grew. But I didn’t love her.

Could I? No, because if I had, I wouldn’t have pushed her out.

“I need you to fix this,” James said softly as he moved forward. “Not because she works for me. Not because she’s one of the best managers we have ever had, not because you ruining this could literally break the family because of Isabella’s loyalties, but because you need her.”

I ran my hands over my face moving toward the side bar. “I need a fucking drink.”

“No, you need to be clearheaded for this,” Flynn argued.

“You’re looking at me as if you have never even thought of the fact that you could love her, and that worries me,” Dorian added, and it surprised me that it was him saying these words. The one of us who was the actual player of the family. “Don’t let Dad get in your head. He’s a fucking asshole who doesn’t deserve a single breath that we give. No space in our minds, no space inour days. It doesn’t matter what the raving lunatic has to say.”

“Everything he put in that letter was just about him,” Flynn continued.

“And it was all bullshit.” Hudson shook his head. “He’s the one who lied, cheated, and somehow ended up with two women who were apparently just fine with having secret families. Because the only secrets they kept were from the kids, not each other.”

I began to pace, my heart racing. “But don’t you see? If I let this get any more serious, and when it blows up spectacularly, I am going to hurt this family.”

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