Page 14 of Infected By Virus

RAE

Rae cried all the way to Harmon’s. It seemed crying and driving had become the norm for her.

When she arrived, she sat in the driveway, attempting to get her emotions under control before she went inside to Adam. She knew it would be hard seeing Darrin, but she didn’t expect it to be brutal.

“Damn you, Celeste, for putting me in that position.” She cursed.

After she did some deep breathing techniques that Harmon taught her, a realization smacked her in the face.

Darrin’s, no, Virus’s words had cut her to the quick, to think she would’ve kept his child from him as some sort of sick revenge made her want to wretch, but what else did she expect? She’d earned his doubt years ago.

Their relationship had been a fairytale until it wasn’t. Doubts and accusations plagued them toward the end. It caused fractures in their relationship that Celeste was more than happy to exploit. It wasn’t all Celeste’s fault. Rae needed to own her part in their demise, but so did Darrin.

Of course, after all the water under the bridge, it was stupid to expect him to magically trust her now when she hadn’t extended him the same courtesy years ago.

She’d broken up with him on the word of another, not even giving him a chance to explain. When you love someone, you don’t let someone else get in your head—you trust them. You give them the benefit of the doubt. It was like neither one understood that back in the day.

But rather than talk to Darrin when he’d started pulling away from her, she’d let Celeste convince her to end things with him. Saying he flirted with her mercilessly. Even propositioned her when Rae wasn’t around. At the time, she’d thought Celeste was just being a protective older sister, but in hindsight, it seemed she’d played Rae like a fiddle.

Exploiting her insecurities and making her doubt her ability to please a man like Darrin. God, she’d been so naïve.

Rae had known it practically from the moment they’d broken up. It had been a few months since she’d seen Darrin. At the time, they were both working full time and she was taking classes at night. Celeste called her to come over and she’d rushed there.

Rae’s plan that night had been ready to call Celeste on her bullshit, then find Darrin and beg him to take her back.

She’d finally gotten a backbone and was ready to tell Celeste to get fucked with her constant negativity, and well, that was the night everything changed.

The look Darrin had directed her way at the clubhouse, after his anger waned, was the exact one he’d turned to her when she took his ring off and placed it in his palm with the words.

“I can’t do this anymore. If you want someone else, go for it. Now you’re free to have Celeste or anyone else you want.”

Maybe if Darrin had tried to stop her or said … something that night, things could’ve been different, but he hadn’t done any of that. He’d just stood there at their spot by the lake, staring at his hand that was closed around the ring. Maybe if she hadn’t constantly accused him of wanting her sister over her, he wouldn’t have slept with Celeste just a few short months later.

They were technically broken up, but in her heart, they weren’t. She’d realized her mistakes, but it was too late. Darrin didn’t know what was in her heart. As much as she wished he had, he didn’t.

Funny how certain details get seared in the mind when confronted with something so horrible you can’t even fathom it. When she’d caught them together a few months later, it wasn’t their nudity or the look on Celeste’s face that stood out the most, it was when Darrin jumped out of bed, with her ring bouncing against his chest as it swung from a chain around his neck. Her ring had been right there, touching her sister’s body.

When she’d run from the house, from the truth, his words had chased her. Begging and pleading that she’d refused to hear. He should’ve offered her his words before he fell dick first into her sister.

Before she’d even got to the end of her sister’s street, she had their numbers blocked. She fled Provo that night and stayed at a fleabag motel with just the clothes on her back.

It had been Harmon who she called to go to her place and grab enough stuff for a few weeks. She stayed there until she decided where she would land.

It had been Harmon, with the help of Barker, who rented a truck once she found a place in Vegas and the rest was history.

Yeah, she’d been immature as fuck and handled it all wrong. It was years before she acknowledged her insecurities played a huge part in driving Darrin to her sister’s bed. She could admit that now, but by the time she realized that fact, years had passed, and she didn’t know how to face the past, or face him.

It had only been recently that Rae had finally, finally gotten to a place in her life where she hadn’t exactly made peace with the past and everyone’s part in it, including hers, but a place of neutral resignation.

Facts, it had happened, they all handled it wrong and played a role in the devastation that followed, and they all had to deal with it in their own ways and move on with their lives.

The moving on with her life ship had steered into a storm when she answered the phone to Celeste on the other end, claiming she had Darrin’s son, and it fucking ran around the minute she’d laid eyes on Darrin.

Still gripping the steering wheel, she banged her head against the back of her hands and growled.

“Why did I let him get under my skin? I knew that’s how he’d react. Ugghhhhhh!” She was so frustrated, but it wasn’t really him she was irritated with, it was herself.

She knew, from recent experience, that she needed to lead with the important info.

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