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She had a shower and put on her makeup, but got no response, so she sent him the video she’d received. Then he called her immediately.
“Where did you get that?” he asked.
The defensiveness in his tone made her curl her fingernails into the palm of her free hand. “Someone sent it to me last night.”
Silence. She was the one who eventually broke it. “Is that Sam?”
“No.”
“Sam isn’t short for Samantha?” she pressed. “There’s another Sam in your life? A male one?”
He wouldn’t want to admit there wasn’t. Then she’d know he’d been cheating for months. He’d been talking about Sam since the start of winter semester. But he must’ve realized that if he stuck by his initial answer, she’d just challenge him to introduce her to his male study partner, because he backtracked right away. “It’s not what you think.”
Her knees turned to jelly. She had to leave the bathroom so she could sit on the bed, because she could tell it was exactly what she thought. “Youhaven’tbeen sleeping with her?”
“No, we—”
“Don’t,” she said, cutting him off immediately. “Don’t lie to me on top of everything.”
“It’s the pressure,” he said, changing tactics. “She’s in med school, too, and understands what it’s like. I guess... I guess I started leaning on her, and...and it went too far.”
“You insisted we’d mend our relationship while we were here on the island.”
“And I meant that. I still do. After I pass my exams, what happened here won’t matter. I’ll fly to Mariners, and we can start over.”
Her heart was racing so fast she could hardly catch her breath. She closed her eyes as she struggled to get enough air.
“Ismay?” he said. “I’m sorry.”
Her mind went to Bo. She wasn’t guiltless. She hadn’t gone nearly as far as Remy had, and she’d been true until the day she arrived on Mariners. Some would say holding hands and one brief hug was nothing. But she’d felt something while touching Bo, and to her, that counted.
“Can you forgive me?” he asked.
Could she?Shouldshe?
If you have half a brain, you’ll get away from Remy Windsor and stay away.
Those words ran through her head as she searched her heart.
“We’ve been through so much together,” he said. “Don’t give up on me now. It was one mistake.”
That’d started at least five months ago. That was a hell of a long mistake. He hadn’t seemed to mind lying to her for the duration of that time. And what about the woman who’d outed him? She’d said he’d gotten her pregnant, which meant he’d cheated on his former girlfriend, too. That kind of infidelity made him a serial cheater. “The woman who sent me those pictures claims you got her pregnant.”
“It wasKathleen?” he said in disgust. “Don’t listen to her. She’s a goddamn liar.”
So was he. Obviously. She opened her mouth to say so but pressed her lips together as he continued.
“We had one encounter, Is. She wanted it to continue, but I wasn’t interested, so she tried to trap me by saying she was going to have my baby. It was all bullshit.”
“She was never pregnant?”
“No! Or she would’ve produced a positive pregnancy test. I asked her for one.”
It was plenty warm in the room and yet Ismay’s hands and feet were blocks of ice. She’d felt Remy pulling away from her these past several months, felt him taking her for granted more and more—and she’d allowed him to blame it all on the pressure he was under.
“Is?” he said.
A tear rolled down her cheek. She didn’t know how to respond. Was he a bastard for doing what he’d done? Or was she just as bad because of how attracted she was to Bo?
