Sharing You

Jace stayed silent for long minutes as he rolled the empty bottle back and forth between his fingers. “I hate to say this, but it’s because of Tate. Because of your view on what happened that day, you weren’t able to see what she was doing to you. You just knew that your world had shattered and figured hers had done the same, so you weren’t seeing her clearly.”

“You’re probably right,” I said. And because of that, because I wanted to help a woman who needed anything but that, I’ve ruined everything with Kamryn.

“Did you at least get some of Olivia’s psychotic episodes recorded?”

“What?” I snorted. “No.”

“What about her dad’s attorney? You can take that shit to court and use it against them for this.”

I frowned and sank even deeper into the couch. “My attorney already mentioned that. With Olivia, half the time I wasn’t even expecting to see her, she’d just be home all of a sudden, or she’d rant at me over the phone. Now that it’s over, it’s easy to think I could have pulled out my phone and recorded it, but I know that’s bullshit. I was always so blown away with whatever was happening, and trying to keep my shit together, that it was taking all my focus. And besides, do you really think she wouldn’t have noticed if I started recording her? She would have stopped whatever she was saying immediately.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Jace sighed and stared straight ahead—seeing nothing for a few minutes before he stood up. “Do you want another?” He held up the bottle, and I shook my head.

Two days after Kamryn had left me in the hotel parking lot, I’d gone to see Jace and demanded to know everything he’d seen from the times he’d followed Olivia. Not only did he have stories of the handful of times he or my parents had followed her, but he had pictures. Olivia shopping with friends, on dates with other guys, out at brunch or di

“You know,” he said, “it’s a good thing you have those pictures, though.”

My forehead creased and I took another sip of my beer. “And why is that?”

“That way, if she tries to come after you in court, you can say she was unfaithful. We have more than enough pictures of her in . . . interesting positions with other men. You throw that into it, the judge isn’t going to rule in her favor, no matter who her ‘daddy’ is.”

I started choking on my beer and had to force it down my throat before I spit it out everywhere.

“You good?”

I held up a hand and took two deep breaths after it was all down. “I, um, I can’t use that against Liv.”

“Of course, you can! You know she’s going to come after you with whatever she can get her hands on just to be a bitch. You need to have something against her, and now you do.”

“Yeah, but it goes both ways,” I whispered and stared at the carpeted floor.

“What does?” When I didn’t answer, he prompted me. “Brody. What does?”

“I’m—I was—having an affair,” I admitted softly, and heard Jace exhale.

“What. The. Hell. With who?!”

I shook my head and finally met his bemused stare. “It doesn’t matter.”

“The hell it doesn’t! We’ve been trying to get you away from Satan in female form and this entire time you’ve been with someone else?”

“Not entire. The last two months.”

“What—I don’t—how the fuck didn’t we kno—Oh, wait, actually, yeah, that makes sense now. You’ve been different over the last couple months. You and I just talked about that a couple weeks ago.”

“Yeah.” My chest felt like it was being ripped apart thinking about that day. I would give anything to do that all over again.

“Well, Brody, if we didn’t know, then chances are Olivia didn’t know.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The day Ka—uh, the day she broke up with me, she’d seen Olivia that morning, and they’d talked. I don’t know what about, I never asked Liv. But the girl knew about how I’d told Olivia I wasn’t going to leave her, so I’m guessing Olivia knows about her.”

“Wait, whoa . . . back the fuck up. When did all this go down?”

“Ten days ago.” Ten of the longest fucking days of my life. I looked back up at Jace and explained, “That’s why I left so suddenly a week and a half ago.”

“Damn, Brody. And you didn’t tell me? So who is she? You said she knows Olivia?”

“No, I honestly don’t think she’d ever met Liv until last week.” Jace motioned for me to continue, and I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter who she is.”

“Yes, it does! Do I know her? Did we go to school with her?”

I blew out a hard breath through my nose and met his stare. “It’s because you know her that I won’t tell you her name. I can’t do that to her.”

“Come on—” He cut off when the front door opened, and his brow scrunched together. “What the hell happened to you two?!”

I turned around and was off the couch as soon as I saw the beautifully broken girl Kinlee had secured to her side. “Kamryn.” I automatically took a step closer to her.

Jace had been walking toward them and stopped when he heard me. “Who?”

“What did you just call her?” Kinlee’s tear-streaked face was full of surprise as she looked from me to Kamryn, and Kamryn tried to break away from Kinlee’s side as new tears quickly fell down her cheeks. “No, no. You’re not leaving.”

“You knew he was here and you didn’t tell me?” Kamryn cried and avoided looking at me as she continued trying to get free.

“Don’t go,” I pleaded, and Jace inhaled sharply next to me.

“Oh, shit, no way! KC’s the girl?”

Kinlee gasped. “You knew about it and you didn’t tell me?”

“I just found out! How long have you known, and why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I’ve only known for, like, ten minutes!”

Kamryn wrenched her arm from Kinlee’s grasp and took off for the door, with me right behind her. I caught her and slammed her body to mine before she could reach the door and held her as her body started giving way to sobs.

“Kamryn, I’m so sorry,” I spoke into her ear as I continued to pull her back closer to my chest. “I’ll never be able to explain how sorry I am for what I said to you and for letting you walk away from me.”

“I can’t do this with you,” she sobbed. “Please just let me go. You have to let me go, Brody.”

Knowing I was the reason for her tears was gutting me, and each word was like a new knife in my chest.

“I can’t let you go. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you with me for the rest of my life. So letting you go isn’t an option. I love you. I’ve loved you since you ran into me in this entryway. And I will love you until I die.”

“Olivia—”

“No Olivia. Just you and me. I told you, Kamryn, I’m go

Her cries filled the entryway, and her hands went to grip where mine were holding her tightly. “But you lied.” Her voice broke, taking my heart with it.

“I never lied to you. I don’t know what Olivia told you that morning, but I’ll tell you everything that happened and why I told her what I did. But I didn’t lie. And you were never a mistress. I had every intention of leaving her to spend the rest of my life with you. She made things complicated, and it was just going to take longer than I’d originally pla

“I can’t do this.” She huffed and pushed against my hands.

Keeping her wrists locked in one hand, I turned her body and pushed her back until she hit the door. “Kamryn.” Pressing her joined hands to her chest, I stepped close enough so our noses were touching and waited until she looked me in the eye. “I’m meant to be with you. If I thought for a second that you actually wanted me to let you go, then I would. But I’ve wasted enough time living without you as it is, I’m not going to waste any more.”