Page 46 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

The words written on my wall last night suddenly rang through my head once more:You'll be sorry.

I was beginning to think they were going to be right.

ChapterEleven

After taking a long nap and another dose of ibuprofen, by seven thirty that night, I was feeling marginally better. Andrew had gone to the restaurant around six and brought back pasta, salad, and garlic bread, which had also helped improve my mood. I'd even managed to put on a pair of soft sweatpants and make my way into the living room to eat.

After dinner, I convinced Andrew to go to the bonfire on his own. I wasn't up to answering questions about the trail ride or faking a smile. Andrew had spoken to Megan while I was napping, who had sent me a nice text telling me to take the night off and get ready for tomorrow…a subtle warning that I could skip the bonfire but nothing else. While Andrew had made a somewhat weak argument for staying with me, in the end, we'd both agreed that he should spend time with his friends since I wouldn't be up for anything more than lying around. And when he finally left, I was happy to see him go. I needed time and space to think about what had happened on the trail ride. I also wanted to look at the video again.

Maybe I'd just imagined seeing a rock hit my horse. But if I hadn't imagined it, then who would have thrown the rock? The only people visible in the video that were behind me were Andrew, Harper, Colin, and Bennett. Out of those four, the only one who seemed even possibly likely was Colin, but I couldn't imagine why he'd have a motive to hurt me.

It could have been Harper, I supposed. I hadn't been able to rule out her involvement in trashing the bridal suite, but she had apologized for her behavior at the wedding, and she was having fun with Colin now. She'd seemed happy on the trail ride, too. Happier than I'd seen her in a long time. It didn't make sense she would have thrown a rock at me or my horse out of some jealous rage. And if she had, wouldn't Colin or Andrew have seen her?

The one person I couldn't blame for this was Allison. She hadn't been on the ride. Although I had no idea where she had been. She was supposed to be working on designs for the new villas on the hillside, and we had passed those villas on our ride. She could have seen us all together and gotten pissed off again. But she would have had to follow us up the trail, and that didn't seem likely, either.

With a sigh, I stretched out on the couch, putting my weight on my good side, and looked at the video again. I still wasn't sure what I was looking at. I needed someone to confide in, someone to tell me if I was going down a dark path, and that someone should be my husband. But Andrew was one of the people in the video, and any accusation I made would have made him angry, ready to defend himself and his best friend. I couldn't drive yet another wedge between us without anything more than a bad feeling and a grainy video.

As I was pondering what to do, an impulse took hold. I scrolled through my messages, finding one I'd gotten a long time ago from Ethan Stark. I asked myself what the hell I was thinking. Before I could come up with an answer, I was calling him.

"Stark," he said a moment later.

"It's Lauren."

"What's wrong?"

"I—I don't know." My hand tightened on the phone as second thoughts about having this conversation ran through me.

"I heard you fell off your horse on the trail ride."

His comment angered me, as if I'd somehow been clumsy enough to fall off a horse. "I was thrown from my horse after it tore down the path because someone threw a rock at her or at me," I said.

"I did not hear that. What can I do?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe nothing. But I think someone deliberately tried to spook my horse, to injure me or worse. There's a video that one of the influencers took. I've been staring at it for hours, and I'm not sure if I'm imagining something or if there's really a clue there."

"Where are you?"

"In my suite."

"And Andrew?"

"He's at the bonfire."

"I'll be there in five minutes."

Ethan ended the call before I could say he didn't need to come over, but maybe he did. He could look at the video and tell me there was nothing there. That would be the best scenario.

A few moments later, a knock came at my door. I got off the couch and limped my way across the room to let Ethan in. He wore jeans and a dark-green sweater tonight, and I had to admit he was a very good-looking man, something I tried not to notice because he usually made me nervous every time he showed up, and I couldn't wait to get away from him. But tonight, I was inviting him into my suite, which still seemed ridiculously risky.

"This was probably a bad idea," I said as he shut the door behind him.

"We can figure that out later." His gaze narrowed. "You look very pale."

"I'm in some pain from my fall. I landed on my hip, and it's pretty bruised."

"Why don't we sit down, and you can show me the video."

I nodded and made my way back to the couch. I gingerly sat down, then opened my phone to the video and handed it to him.

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