Page 140 of Leave

I felt Nolan’s spine go rigid.

“Why?” he asked.

Carol shook her head. “He didn’t say. But he said it’s important.”

Nolan looked at me, eyes wide. He swallowed hard. Even decked out in his Marine dress blues, every inch the badass, his vulnerability and uneasiness were heartbreaking.

I rested my hand on his back. “It’s up to you.”

He held my gaze, chewing the inside of his cheek. Then he turned to his mom. “Can we meet him at your house tomorrow?”

“Of course,” she said quickly. “Whatever you need.”

And that was how we ended up in Carol and John’s living room the next afternoon, facing off with the brother Nolan hadn’t spoken to since before Matt and Sophia’s wedding.

It was reminiscent of that confrontation with the family last year, except it was only the three of us. That, and Andrew was a far cry from the man who’d decked Nolan in the restroom the night of the rehearsal. He looked… hell, he lookedbroken. All the anger had drained away, and now he was just lost and exhausted.

And as he wrung his hands, no wedding ring caught the light.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either.

“You’re not wearing your ring,” Nolan said quietly.

“No. I’m not.” Andrew looked down at his hands, and he ran a fingertip over the tan line where the gold band used to be. “Leann and I… We’re separating.”

“Oh.” Nolan’s tone was even. No gloating. No vindictiveness. Maybe a question, or I might’ve been projecting because I sure had a few.

Silence hung over us all for a long time before Andrew finally spoke.

“I’m sorry, Nolan.” He stared at the living room carpet between us. “I… When everything came out, I didn’t want to believe it. But now…” He trailed off shaking his head.

Nolan and I glanced at each other. His face was unreadable.

Looking at his brother again, he asked, “Do you believe me?”

Andrew kept his gaze down, and he answered with a slow nod that seemed like it might shake him to pieces.

Beside me, Nolan swallowed, the click audible in the heavy silence.

After another uncomfortable moment, Andrew asked, “What happened—what she did to you—is that why you didn’t come to my wedding?”

Nolan shifted in his chair. “I, uh…” He stared down at his hands. “I had orders for a combat tour. It wasn’t my choice. But, I um…”

“If you hadn’t had orders, would you have come?”

Nolan chewed his lip for a moment. Then he met his brother’s gaze and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to miss your wedding, but I couldn’t—”

“No shit, you couldn’t,” Andrew whispered, and for the first time since we’d sat down, he met his brother’s gaze. His eyes were faintly wet, and his voice wasn’t quite steady. “I was so angry because I thought you just bailed, and—now that I know what happened. And the worst part is that looking back…” He winced and shook his head. “Fuck. All the signs were there.”

“They were?”

Andrew nodded. “Yeah. How did…” He paused to collect himself, and managed enough to ask, “How did I miss that my wife was a predator and a—God, a fucking rapist?”

“Did she admit to it?”

“No. But her story kept changing. First she said nothing ever happened between you two. But then I asked her whysheaccusedyouof raping her if nothing happened, and she tried to go back to that. Then she tried to frame it as her cheating on me with you. Like…” He exhaled and shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Maybe she’d caught on that I didn’t believeher? That I was seeing the holes in her stories? So she tried to hurt me with it. Say she’d cheated right under my nose with my own brother, and…” His shoulders fell. “That’s when I knew you were right. The stories—they just didn’t add up. And I mean…” He laughed without a trace of humor. “Why would my gay brother sleep with my wife? But the truth was so awful, and… God, Nolan. She fucking ruined your life.”

“No, she didn’t,” Nolan said with an edge of defiance. “She derailed it, that’s for sure. But I’ve made the most of where life took me.” He took my hand, and a small smile materialized. “It definitely hasn’t been all bad.”

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