Page 64 of Mine To Take

Cora.

Cora.

Why on earth had I kissed her?

“My assistant tells me you are trending everywhere,” Maddie says when my silence shows no sign of ending. In the years since Cora left me, Maddie’s life has changed in many ways. She met and married Vaughn Fletcher and moved to his ranch in Texas. Her designs are still in stores, but she’s taking things much slower these days.

“Did you call to chastise me?” My voice is brusquer than I intend, and I sigh. I’m in a bad mood, and the prospect of having to defend myself to my sister doesn’t make it any better.

“Tristan, I’m just worried.”

“About me, or Cora?”

She doesn’t reply. We haven’t spoken about Cora since the months immediately following the separation and divorce, but I know Maddie blames me for the way things ended.

“Both of you,” she says at last. “This kind of publicity isn’t good for anyone. Especially someone unprepared for it.”

“Like Cora.”

“Yes.”

Why should I be concerned about Cora? Why should I care if the press descends on her with hunger for details about our life together? Why should I care?

Why do I care?

“There’s nothing I can do,” I tell Maddie. “After the initial furor, things will cool down. She’s just going to have to live with the world knowing her connection to me.”

“I know how much Cora meant to you,” Maddie says after a short silence. “I don’t understand how you can be so cold when it comes to her.”

“Cold?” I chuckle, my tone bitter. “She was the one who left.”

Maddie scoffs. “She was unhappy. She left. And you never went after her.”

You don’t know what she did. I almost say the words out loud, but I don’t. As with Nick, I still have a strange desire to shield Cora, to hide the full extent of her betrayal.

“I shouldn’t bring up the past,” Maddie says in a conciliatory tone. “I was concerned, and I was hoping, with the subject of the news, that maybe things had changed between you two.”

Because I kissed her.

“Nothing has changed.” The words are firm and final, more for me than for Maddie. Nothing has changed between Cora and me, and nothing will.

“Oh. Have you at least spoken to her since…?”

“There’s no need. I can either fix what’s happened, or I can’t. Either way, talking to her will change nothing.”

“Maybe it will.”

I ignore what she’s saying. I’m already too inclined to find any excuse to reach out to Cora. I don’t need Maddie putting ideas in my head.

In any case, I know Cora detests me.

I don’t care.

I’m finally happy.

In the memory of her words, I can hear again and again how little I mean to her.

“Maddie. I’ll have to call you back.”

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