Page 203 of Savage Suit
The room spun and I staggered, on the verge of fainting. Nicholas loomed in front of me and I reached for him. He grabbed his phone. Vaguely, I heard the door close and realized he’d left.
Sobs tore from me, and nausea twisted in my stomach. I fell to my knees and, somehow, managed to reach the trash can on the side of the console before vomit spewed out of my mouth, emptying my stomach. I curled up on the floor, my body racked with sobs, the videos playing on repeat in my head.
“Ryan!”
I didn’t know the amount of time that had passed before Noah called my name. It could’ve been a minute or an hour. A year or a day. It didn’t matter because my heart was irrevocably broken. I hadn’t realized how much I trusted Noah, how much I loved him, until tonight. He’d betrayed me in every conceivable way, and I’d never forgive him.
Crouching, he reached for me, but I scrambled back and stumbled to my feet.
“Ryan?” he said, standing and coming toward me.
I dodged him. “Don’t fucking touch me,” I screamed, completely unhinged, not caring about my tears or my runny nose. “I trusted you!”
“You don’t anymore?”
His confusion enraged me further. “You’re a fucking liar and a cheater,” I snarled. “All of you lied to me about the ball, but you!You! You fucked Megan Buford.”
He froze, paled. Yet he offered no denials. “Ryan—”
I recoiled at the sound of my name on his lips. “I’m leaving.”
“Who told you?”
“No one told me. I saw the videos!”
If possible, he went even paler. “What video?” he asked in a strangled voice.
“Videos.One of you eating her pussy and the other where she’s riding your cock.” My breath sawed in and out of my lungs so fast, I thought I’d hyperventilate. The horror on Noah’s face didn’t help. “I don’t ever want to talk to you a-again. Or Quinn or Reid. None of you.”
He closed his eyes, not bothering to question me. The fucker knew his game was up. “Let me explain,” he pleaded, bleakness settling into his gaze. “I never meant for you to find the newspapers. I thought I’d locked them away.”
“Newspapers?” I spat. “I haven’t seen any fucking newspapers.”
“Then how—”
“Megan Buford,” I snarled. “She sent me a fucking email with copies of Quinn’s letters.Yourletter.”
He didn’t threaten diabolical retributions or display any anger. If he hadn’t been guilty, he would’ve been furious. “Listen to me, sweetheart.”
“Fuck you. There’s no fucking listening to a liar. All of you knew the truth and didn’t think I needed to know. I thought I was imagining things when I saw how buddy-buddy you and Quinn were. But it was real. You two bonded over your shared fucking over of me.”
“That isn’t true. Quinn loves you. I adore you. We only wanted to protect you.”
“By fucking lying to me? I can’t tell you how many times I asked Quinn for the truth.”
He came toward me, but I dodged him again and ran to the door. “I’m leaving, Noah. I’ll never be able to trust you, any of you, again.”
“Ryan,” he said, catching up to me and grabbing my arm, turning me toward him. “You’ve got to listen to me,” he said, desperation in the words. “Quinn told me about when your parents discovered you were on birth control.”
Horror washed through me. “It wasn’t her business to tell.”
Noah took my face between his hands. “Yes, it was,” he whispered. “She wanted me to understand what drove you and her. Why she felt she couldn’t tell you the truth.”
“I had every right to know. It doesn’t matter how uncomfortable it made her, she shouldn’t have kept it from me. But stop diverting my attention away from you. You’re guiltier than she is.” I shoved him away from me. “You fucked Megan. No wonder she hates me. You used that fucking business trip to get pussy from her.”
“Ryan, listen to me.Please. She came to my room because Reid wouldn’t talk to her. She didn’t have anywhere to go, so I was going to pay for a two-night stay at the hotel. Right before we were supposed to go to the lobby, I drank the last of my wine. The next morning…Fuck, Nicholas was looming over my bed because I’d overslept.” He hung his head. “Megan was next to me.”
The pain of those words made me double over. The death of my parents devastated me, compounded when I discovered the truth of what actually happened. I thought nothing would ever compare. But I was so, so wrong. At least then, I believed I had my sisters and brothers. Now, I was completely alone.
