Page 66 of Sparrow

I step back when I hear the lock turning.

When the door pulls open, she’s standing on the other side. Her cheeks are red and flushed, her hair is a wild tangle, and her lipstick is smeared.

But the kicker is what she’s wearing. A bra and panty set so skimpy it barely qualifies, and black high heels. She’s clearly trying to impress someone.

“Gray, what are you doing here?” Her voice breaks a bit, like she’s nervous.

“I thought you said you were sick?” I ask bluntly. “Tell me you didn’t lie to me, Mills.”

“Grayson, I—” she says, when a man steps into view from behind her. He’s buttoning his jeans, smoking a cigarette. He steps closer to her and slides an arm around her waist, pulling her in close.

I want to rip that arm off and beat him with it.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asks with a growl.

I ignore him and focus my attention back on Amelia, who is shaking like a leaf.

“Who is this, Mills?” I ask.

“Grayson, this is my husband, Jaxon.”

Husband. I step back two paces and lock my fingers together behind my neck. “Husband? That’s why you left today? To come be with him?”

She looks quickly up at the man beside her then speaks quickly.

“Jaxon and I have worked things out. I’m not going through with the divorce.”

My entire world collapses around me.

“You don’t mean that,” I say. “You don’t.”

Her husband just laughs and steps back into the foyer, leaving her to face me, but staying close enough to hear what we say.

“This was a mistake, Grayson. I shouldn’t have come back here.” The words are leaving her mouth but it seems wrong, forced, like she’s scared.

“The fuck you shouldn’t have. You belong here. You belong with me. Don’t tell me you haven’t felt it since that day on this fucking front porch,” I raise my voice, raw emotion pumping through my veins.

“It was a fling. A rebound. I was upset because of Jaxon cheating on me. I wanted to get him back. You were here,” she says with dead eyes.

I stalk toward her and take her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me. Look me in the face and say it.” My hands are trembling just like her lips, tears in her eyes.

“I don’t love you, and I want you to leave.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t love you!” she shouts. “Go! Just leave!” She’s near hysterical, shoving me off, physically fighting me. “Get the fuck out of here, Grayson. It’s pathetic. Stop moping around and go! It’s over.”

She pushes me until I nearly tumble back off the stairs, but I catch myself on the railing. I look up to see her reaching up to her throat and tugging.

“I don’t love you,” she says again, but it sounds like she’s trying to convince herself, not me. She tosses something at me, and it bounces off my chest and lands on the ground with a metallic ping.

Her necklace.

I reach down to pick it up; clutching it in my hand so hard it nearly hurts. I pause a beat then finally look back up and into her eyes.

“Well, I’ll always love you, Mills.”

I hear a sob leave her throat as I turn around and head back toward my truck. I glance back at her house when I slip behind the wheel to see her door closed, but the curtain covering the window pulled back, her husband grinning my way.

I pull from her driveway and park just a block away, pulling my cell from my pocket and dialing Case.

“Yo,” he says when he answers.

“Case. Mills is in trouble.”

I don’t know how I know, but I do.

---