Page 12 of Free to Believe
“And I’m not blameless. I jumped in too fast, said yes too quick,” I say with disgust.
“Why did you?” Ali asks. The others look at me expectantly.
I open my mouth and close it a few times. I never talk about them, but maybe it’s time to. “My parents had a whirlwind courtship, I was told. Apparently my father took one look at my mother and fell head over heels in love with her,” I say quietly. You could hear a pin drop in the room it’s that silent. “When Bryan kissed me that first time, it was like oh, wow. I thought maybe this could be the start of something. Obviously I was wrong.”
“Or maybe you were completely right,” Holly observes. Everyone, especially me, looks at her in shock.
“What do you mean?” I ask confused.
“You don’t talk about them a lot, so we don’t know about what your day-to-day life was like, Em. But in the end? Your father was a selfish prick who was willing to sacrifice the people he was supposed to love in order to save himself.” She nods toward Cassidy’s bag. “Sounds like another egomaniac we all now hate.”
Shock holds me immobile. I can’t move as I process her words because they’re true. Once again, Holly’s keen eye has seen below the layers into the heart and soul of a situation.
How many times over the last year have I mentally compared Bryan to my father? But unlike my mother, I was trying to find myself before I would never be lost. I just hadn’t got there.
Until now.
Putting down my cup, I tip my chin up. “Holly?” My voice comes out cool and composed. Just like the ice princess I’ve been accused of being.
“Yes?” she replies warily.
“You are one hundred percent right. Now”—my voice hardens—“let’s go officially break my engagement.”
* * *
Turningoff Old Church Road in Greenwich, Phil parks my Land Rover next to Bryan’s Mercedes. While I admire the design of the early-twentieth-century Victorian unit, deep in my heart, I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell I was leaving my home on the family’s farm to move here. Yet another bone of contention between me and Bryan that we’d argued over quite frequently.
Pulling his spare key from my bag, I gesture to my family to follow me. We march together as one force to the wraparound porch in front of Bryan’s unit. I insert my key, twist, and step inside.
I almost take a header on the suit jacket. Phil catches me as I slip backward. “Whoa. Are you okay?”
My heartbeat picks up as my eyes follow the jacket my boots are tangled up in to the line of clothes leading toward the back hall where Bryan’s master bedroom lies. Holding on to Phil’s hand, I carefully step out of the twisted mess I’ve left of Bryan’s suit coat. “Okay? No. I don’t think that’s the right word right now.”
He asks, “Why not?” just as Holly goes, “Oh, shit.”
She moved farther into the room, and she’s holding up something. A dress.
Well, I guess that just confirmed the cheating question. Son of a bitch. I step closer. “That’s the same dress from last night. I can’t tell if it’s mine or if it’s a fake.” I let out a huge sigh. It looks almost identical to one I designed, but my brain is going a million miles in a million different directions. I have to do one thing at a time. And right now, becoming free is most important. “I’ll be just a few minutes. Take the dress with us. I’ll want to look at it at some point. And see if you can find my shit in the hall closet. Maybe there’s a bag we can use to get it out of here.”
“What? He never even gave you a drawer?” Ali exclaims, heading toward the closet.
“I never was here long enough.” Stalking off down the hallway toward Bryan’s room, I’m in a fury. To me, there is no greater disrespect than cheating. It’s essentially the living death of a relationship versus the kind of death I’m used to.
The kind that ends with a body in a casket.
When, I’m right outside Bryan’s bedroom door, I raise my hand to knock when I hear a long, low moan. Yeah, to hell with the nice route. Throwing open the door, I’m careful to not let it slam.
I find my soon-to-be ex gripping the headboard of his bed while one of his esteemed colleagues is trailing her tongue over his cock. Calmly, I call out, “I’m surprised you can find it, Dr. Whitacre. I often found it has a problem of disappearing at inopportune times.”
“Fuck, Emily.” Bryan kicks his bedmate in the shoulder as he scrambles to cover himself. “It’s not—”
“What I’m thinking?” I smirk. “Please. Have a decent-size pair of balls for once, Bryan. Own up to the fact you were enjoying a lovely morning screw before you have to get to the office.”
“But Em, I thought you were engaged to him?” Corinna comes up behind me, pretend shock in her voice. “I mean, after all, he gave you a ring and everything.”
I shake my head in mock sadness. “Don’t you see, Cori? I refused to follow all my doctor’s orders, so I guess he decided to take on another candidate for the clinical trial.”
“Hmm. Well, we’re done out there.”
