Page 104 of Versions Of Us

His head snaps up in my direction, a fearful look in his crystal baby blues. “You did?”

I nod again. “She told me we’re sisters,” I admit. “You already knew that though.”

He frowns. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but it wasn’t my place.”

“I get that.” I move closer to the rock, climbing up to take the space beside him. “But she said something else that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

“What did she say?”

“She said that you sacrificed everything to help her out of a bad situation. She said it’s her fault that you didn’t come home.”

He shakes his head defiantly. “It was never her fault. I told her that.”

“She also told me that I need to give you a chance to explain.”

He looks away from me and I see his back muscles constricting and expanding with every breath he takes. I cup his cheek, turning his face toward mine. His nostrils are flared, his chest heaving in an effort to get air.

“Alex. I know something happened. There must be a reason you left the way you did.”

“I want to tell you.”

I’ve never seen Alex Henley helpless before but right now he’s the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen him. He takes another deep breath, then his eyes, rimmed with dark circles, focus in on mine. I’ve been so focused on my own suffering but now I’m suddenly aware of the pain that hides behind them. How didn’t I see it before?

“Please,” I beckon. “Tell me.”

His jaw clenches as he swallows, his voice gravelly when he finally utters one word. “Okay.”

I don’t miss the way his hand trembles when he reaches out and takes my palm in his.

Chapter 42

HENLEY – SIX MONTHS AGO

You can be anywhere when your world caves in. When it’s changed forever in an instant. Your darkest moment could come in the brightest of places, a brilliant summer’s day underneath the bluest of skies.

At least, that’s how it happened for me.

I merge onto the highway, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Today will be the day that I finally act on something that has troubled me for years. I know what I need to do.

The memory of this morning is still fresh in my mind. Of Kristen lying next to me, her skin golden, bathed in shimmery light as it poured through the cracks in the bay window curtains in my bedroom. I’d always considered myself unbreakable, untouchable. Relatively unphased by anything.

But that was before.

Before I realised that I have everything to lose.

It’s her. It’s always been her.

The girl, who at sixteen, was able to see through the façade. Who, by eighteen, knew me better than anybody else on this planet. Who had seen me bleed, felt my heartbeat underneath her palms.

And the woman, who can now decipher even the most subtle of my gestures, who knows how to melt me even when I’m stone cold.

She’s everything.

And I’m going to marry her.

But not before I see her father.

Not that Greg Riley deserves that title. I mean, what kind of father doesn’t visit or call or send a simple birthday card?

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