Page 7 of Revelation (Love Isn't What It Seems 3)

I didn’t want to lose my shit, but this ache was unbearable, it flooded each part of my body like poison… effortlessly and painfully. Taking shallow breaths and trying to swallow the lump in my throat, a weird whimper sound left my lips, and I hated how vulnerable it made me feel.

Lachlan’s big arms came around me. “I’m so sorry, Layla. I know how close you three were.”

He pulled me into his penthouse and sat me on the couch. I tried so hard to get my composure back, but Lena’s and Larry’s smiling faces kept swirling in my mind. That last outing Lena, Livy, and I had. How Lena scolded Livy and I for getting too wild. We lost her, and it was hard to comprehend she’d never be back.

The blink of an eye and life forever changed. One breath and people are forever gone out of your life. Just like Brian. Just like my mother. And now, just like Lena and Larry. Life wasn’t fair; rotten people like me should be punished. I deserved a fate like that; they didn’t.

“Here, take a drink.” Lachlan’s voice pulled me back, out of the despaired thoughts. My fingers trembled as I reached out for the glass and brought it to my lips, spilling a drop of the brown liquid. “It will be okay, Layla.” His attempt at comfort was genuine, but I couldn’t accept it. Right now, life tasted bitter, just like this alcohol on my tongue.

“Thanks.” I took another sip, another shot of bitterness swallowed down my throat. Maybe one of these days, I’d get used to it. “I’m on my way to the airport, to see if I can get a flight back,” I rasped in a quiet tone. “I don’t know, for some stupid reason I started thinking about your house party. And how horrible I was, acting childish and crazy.”

This latest devastating news highlighted even more that we weren’t guaranteed tomorrow. I didn’t want that behavior of mine to be the last thing he remembered about me. It was about time I took control of at least some of the things in my life. And the apology was one of the things I could control.

When he said nothing, I cleared my throat and continued in a shaky voice, “So I want to apologize for my behavior.” In the grand scheme of things, maybe it wasn’t significant to him, but it was important to me. I knew Lena would have wanted me to act decent. To say I acted like a complete bitch was putting it mildly. “Eve didn’t deserve it. She has been through a lot and to have treated her the way I did, it was despicable.”

I twisted my hands in my lap.

“Yes, it was despicable,” he agreed, but there was no venom in his voice. Admittedly, I was never a serious thing on his radar. I knew that, but didn’t want to acknowledge it. Just another person that didn’t want me, but the question was did I even want him. I was probably enthralled with him for all the wrong reasons.

My eyes traveled over his tall frame. He was handsome, one of the most handsome men I had ever met. And he was richer than God. There was a pool of women that would give their right hand to get his attention. I guess I was one of those as well, although I couldn’t say that he ever made me lose my head.

Regret washed over me. He wasn’t just a bank account. Lachlan was one of those men that stood by you regardless of how badly you fucked up. And he was good, a truly good man. “I know you didn’t mean it, Layla.”

He always looked for the best in people. And Eve Bailey was a lucky woman. She would recognize how lucky she was. Eventually.

“I am so sorry.” I didn’t even know whether I meant about my behavior, Lachlan’s obvious heartache or my own pain at losing my best friends. Probably all three.

“When is the funeral?”

I bit into my lower lip, focusing on the sting of it instead of hollowness in my chest. Thinking about the funeral just made it all too real. I would rather pretend it was all a bad dream, a nightmare.

“Tomorrow,” my voice was hoarse as I answered. “It’s the reason I have to find a flight and rush back to London.”

“I’ll have my plane take you.”

His kindness brought the tears to my eyes and I raised my head to meet his gaze. “You don’t-”

“I’ll have my plane take you. I know how much they meant to you.”

I blinked hard, the sting in my eyes telling me tears could pour out at any second. I had to keep it together.

“Thank you, Lachlan,” I rasped. “And I know you and Eve will work it all out. You are a good man.”

He didn’t comment but instead just answered. “I’ll send a message to my pilot. We’ll have to leave now so he can get clearance to fly.”

It was thanks to him that I made it back to London on time. It took me a long time to realize that my infatuation with Lachlan was a mistake. I made a complete fool out of myself and went so far to hurt Eve Bailey. Like the woman didn’t go through enough. If her sister decided to find me and beat the crap out of me, I wouldn’t blame her at all. I let jealousy get the best of me, but seeing the way he looked at Eve, it was clear there was nobody else for him.

It wasn’t even that I loved him. But damn it, another rejection. It always came down to a painful rejection. You’d think being almost thirty, I’d learn by now that rejection was healthy. I heard it my entire life, so it shouldn’t be a novelty. Yet, it still hurt. Nobody wanted me.

Liberty does. Lena did too.

Those two were the best things that ever happened to me. I went searching for my half-sister, determined to prove to my grandparents I was better. I came out with lifelong friends that accepted me for who I was.

My heart clenched at the loss of Lena and Larry, her husband. Those two deserved to live till old age, instead their lives were cut short. In the blink of an eye, they were gone from us forever. A car accident. Was it another stupid teenager like me that prematurely ended their life? I didn’t even dare ask Liberty any details. It was too painful for her to talk about it and too painful for me to remember. Knowing they were gone from us forever was painful enough.

Brian’s death was on my hands. So was my mother’s. There was no moving on from that. Maybe I used drugs that night because of my mother’s bad influence. She had been battling some form of addiction for as long as I could remember. I just couldn’t understand why I did it. I swore from an early age I would never touch that stuff, seeing what it did to my mother. And Brian paid the ultimate price.

“You killed them!” My grandfather’s chilled voice screamed in my brain.

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