Page 115 of How to Get Even

‘I wasn’t expecting you.’

He barked out a cynical laugh. He hadn’t been expecting her either.

She shrugged. ‘I didn’t…’

For someone usually so eloquent, it was nearly hard to see Bella stutter over her words. Her confession.

‘You’re not what I wanted, Chase,’ she said, almost like an accusation.

His brow shot up in shock. He wasn’t sure what he thought she’d been about to say, but it wasn’t that.

‘You’re not,’ she said, as if she were helpless to do anything about it. ‘You say what you think, and you don’t care whether it offends or wounds those around you. You keep far too much to yourself and refuse to let people in.’

‘Can you blame me?’ he asked, offended.

‘You actively dislike some of the parts of my life that I enjoy,’ she pressed on and he knew she was speaking of the galas and the charity events. ‘And you frustrate every expectation I have of you. And despiteallof that, despite all of that,’ she repeated, the tears gathering in her eyes making his heart pound, ‘I still fell in love with you.’

‘Love me? How can you…?’ A part of him wanted to roar in pain, and he couldn’t quite understand it. ‘I don’t even fuckingknowyou,’ he spat, causing himself as much harm as her.

She nodded, biting into her lip to stop it from trembling. ‘I know,’ she said sadly. ‘I know that’s what you think, that’s what youneedto think right now, but actually, I think you might be the person who has known the real me the most,’ she said, swallowing.

He turned away from her sadness, because he hated that it matched his own.

She betrayed you. She betrayed you, warred with every single tear he saw in her eyes.

She inhaled, shaky and hurt, defeated in a way he’d never seen her before, and it took everything in him not to go to her. He couldn’t. He couldn’t trust her.

She got to the door, and turned. He watched her from the corner of his eye, unable to look at her.

‘You lied too,’ she said softly. ‘You said that making mistakes was okay. You said that we’d talk, or even argue, but that it would still be okay. But it’s not.’

The sight of her walking out the door was a punch that hit low in the gut and nearly dropped him to the floor. Which was where Tej found him an hour later, bottle of whisky in hand and no judgement.

* * *

Bella stepped into the frigid cold of the Upper West side without her jacket and didn’t feel a thing. Until three sets of arms wrapped around her and held her tight. She sank into them and let them hold her up for what felt like an eternity, until she realised that she was shivering.

‘Where the heck is your coat?’ Sienna demanded. ‘Why is this woman never wearing a coat?’

‘I don’t think she’s worried about her coat right now.’

‘Let’s get her into a cab,’ Paige suggested before hailing one from the other side of the street.

An illegal U-turn hardly registered to Bella as she realised that she was completely and utterly numb. She pressed her fingers against her lips and felt nothing. Barely noticed how Astrid and Paige put her into the back of the car.

‘Where to?’ the cabbie asked.

‘The apartment,’ Bella whispered, knowing that it would be for the last time.

‘Won’t Chase be there?’ Paige asked concerned.

‘He won’t come back tonight,’ Bella stated.

‘Did he say that?’ Sienna asked.

Bella shook her head. He hadn’t needed to.

Astrid told the cabbie the address and Sienna looked at her worriedly. Bella forced a smile to her lips, and rubbed Sienna’s hand, hoping that would ease her concern and then realised what she was doing.

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