Page 93 of White Raven
Rhaena lowered her hand, pressing it to her chest in shock. “Brent! Damn, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—” Her eyes caught Sarah behind him, and she swallowed. “Sarah?”
Choosing not to be in the room for that particular conversation, Brent stepped past her, switching places as she and Sarah faced off. “See you guys later.” He cleared his throat and headed for the elevator.
“Brent,” Sarah called, stopping him at the elevator doors. She jogged down the hallway and paused in front of him. “Look, I don’t know why you’re doing this, and I’m not sure why I care about your opinion, but…am I wrong here?”
That piercing hazel gaze made him feel small, somehow. She used to have that effect a lot. But her eyes seemed differentnow.Shewas different now. And so was he. It made him realize a million different things at once. He grabbed her hand and looked down at it when his thumb landed on a large stone on her finger. Kane had taste. It looked like it was made for her. It probably was. Brent himself hadn’t even had the courtesy of picking a ring for her when he’d proposed. Everything they had—it was never the real thing. It only made him wish he could do more to make sure that she got that for herself.
“You remember the night you broke it off?” he asked, turning her ring on her finger.
“I do,” she breathed.
“You said I never told you I loved you. You reminded me that I didn’t even say it the night I put that ring on your finger.” He pulled his hand back and stuffed them into his pockets. “Does he fill all those empty spots that I was too selfish to fill myself?”
Her chest moved up and down with heavy breaths, and every emotion stamped on her face betrayed her deep urge to cry. He knew it. “He does.”
“You forgave me, didn’t you?”
“…I did.”
Brent smiled, reaching out and flicking her nose. “You’ll be okay.”
Rhaena had stood speechless at Wren’s door, a million apologies firing off for a million different things in her head—but how much did Sarah know? She had to know at least a little something, if that look on her face said anything. She could have frozen to death with the cold stare Sarah had given her before she rushed past her to catch Brent at the elevator. Wren got upfrom the couch and approached her as she stood puzzled against the wall by the kitchen doorway.
“Hey,” Wren urged, reaching out and gently placing her hand on her arm. “What’d the doctor say? Where’s Brandon?”
“He got called into work. I think Blakely stays fucking sick, or he’s just full of shit and doesn’t have any vacation time left. Brandon’s just too nice to tell him to go fuck himself.”
“You hungry? We’ve got Chinese.”
Damn, it sounded good. Smelled like heaven in a paper container, but Rhaena shook her head, clutching her upper arms. “I’ll take some coffee if you have it?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Wren busied herself with the coffee maker and Rhaena made herself small at the kitchen table as Sarah came back inside, sniffling. The door shut, and she locked it before turning towards them in the kitchen and locking eyes with her.
“Prolonging the torture might work for other people, but it doesn’t for me,” Sarah admitted, pulling a chair and sitting down next to her. “The how does bother me, Rhaena…but it isn’t your fault. I guess it really isn’t Athan’s either. You fucked. You’re adults. I wasn’t in the picture then.”
“It doesn’t make it okay,” Rhaena added, biting her lip and hanging her head. “I started that shit that day. Made him feel guilty. It still isn’t fair to you.”
Sarah was quiet for a moment, and Wren never turned around, but she knew she was taking in every word. “That’s not exactly true. I was with Brent. What I find unfair is the fact that I seem to be the only one excluded from this little circle of important knowledge.”
“Hate to be the bitch, but again, that wasn’t Rhaena’s responsibility to tell you that part, either.” Wren turned and grabbed the can of coffee next to the sink. “Athan should havebeen honest about that if it was important enough for you to know.”
“For what it’s worth, Sarah…I didn’t deny that we had been sleeping together when you called me out on it.” Rhaena flashed back to that car ride, and how uncomfortable it was to know that practically everyone had figured out that she and Athan were fucking.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Sarah said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. “Are you pregnant?”
That war inside her about whether or not she was happy about the answer, for now, subsided. It felt like more of a relief than it had all day when she finally answered. “No. They did an ultrasound. No baby. False alarm.”
The way Sarah’s whole demeanor changed, and the long breath that followed after, gave her a tremendous break from the weight she’d been carrying ever since the night Athan had come by the house. That being said…where was he?
“Is he here?” Rhaena asked, looking around.
“N—no, he’s…at home. Brent just left to go talk to him.” Sarah rubbed her temples.
“When did he tell you?”
“I mostly beat it out of him tonight. At Nell’s. We had a big fight. I told him I wasn’t coming home. Now I feel like an asshole.”
