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Chapter Thirty-Four
Afew moments later James returned at my side again. He didn't try to embrace me as many others had. "I wish you and Sawyer all the luck in the world for the future. You've got one of the best there," he said, nodding in the direction he thought his brother had gone. I glanced again at the celebrating crowd, but I still couldn't see him.
"Thank you, I agree," I answered, curtly then saw how genuine he appeared and sighed. "Look, what happened between you and Charlotte was before my time. Had you both not done what you did, I wouldn't be standing here now. However, my loyalty lies with your brother. He was wronged and from how your family has accepted me, reading between the lines, I'm guessing Sawyer was in a very bad place for a while."
James looked genuinely guilty and remorseful for what he'd done and shook his head. "I'm so fucking sorry, truly I am." He shrugged and nodded into the crowd again. "I'm living with the consequence of it every day. I lost the respect of my family, but it's no more than I deserve."
"If you feel this way, I don't understand why you're still with her."
"At first I felt I had no choice. What we did to Sawyer was horrible, but at the time my parents wouldn't let me explain. I suppose I'd deserved that because I'd never been kind to Sawyer growing up." He sniffed and chewed the side of his mouth. "When my father threw me out, I booked into the Four Seasons for a few days. I wanted time to think about how I could make things right, before I realized nothing I could do ever would. I felt distraught things with Charlotte had gotten out of hand."
"Or were you just sorry you got caught? You can't expect me to believe you when she's still with you." James flashed me a dark look, like the one I'd seen in Sawyer's eyes when he spoke to Logan for challenging me that day we arrived back at my house on his motorcycle.
"Sawyer went through some shit, but so did I. At first, I ignored Charlotte's texts, calls, and messages until three days later when her mom called to say Charlotte was threatening to hurt herself, that I'd thrown myself at her daughter and she told me all kinds of shit Charlotte was saying about me, none of which was true. I knew deep down Charlotte would never do anything to harm herself—she's far too selfish and body conscious for that—but I couldn't take that risk, because I already knew the lengths she had gone to. I mean, I resisted her for a long time, but she's such a manipulative bitch and she still got me to fuck her."
"This still doesn't tell me why you're still with her." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair again, and my goodness, he looked just like his brother when he did it.
"The call from her mom was Charlotte manipulating things for her benefit, but it worked, and I called her back. It was then she dropped the bomb that she was pregnant."
"Pregnant?"
"Yes. Trust me, at first, I thought it was another bullshit move to take control of the situation. She'd lost Sawyer, and in her sick way, I was the next best thing in whatever game she was playing. I never thought I'd let any girl fuck up my world, but Charlotte has done it with style. I lost my family and most of my friends because of our betrayal. I didn't believe she was pregnant and got her to pee on a stick in front of me. Sure as shit, there were two blue lines on the fucking pregnancy test."
"There's no baby now, is there?" I asked, confused because no one mentioned a child.
"Three months later she lost our baby," he said, his tone flat.
I blinked unsure how to respond. Eventually, I mumbled, "I'm sorry. No one told me that."
"No one knows. Apart from you now, obviously," he added, flatly. "We've never told the families. She was almost three months pregnant and I had dropped her off for her first OBGYN prenatal appointment earlier that day. I asked her if she'd wanted me to go with her, but she insisted on doing it alone. Afterward, I met up with her again, took her to dinner before heading home, and she suddenly felt unwell. I waited for around fifteen minutes with her in the restroom then asked a waitress to check on her. By then it was too late."
"She miscarried?"
He nodded. "Any animosity I felt about her fell away. Charlie was a mess, both physically and mentally. I couldn't leave her after that. If it happens, it needs to be her move, and unless she can get her claws back into Sawyer, I don't see that happening any time soon."
"You're not obliged to stay with her," I offered. "You only get one life, and you will never reconcile with your family as long as you're together."
"Look, I should have known better. I was the more mature party in all of this."
When I heard James's comment I was taken aback, reminded he was only a year younger than me, and how he thought this had affected his judgement when it came to Charlotte. I eyed him studiously for a moment, and it was easy to see how Sawyer would look at my age. My heart immediately sank when my next thought was how I would look by then.
What was even more unnerving was looking at his brother's clean-shaven face and immaculate grooming, which reminded me of the first time I met Sawyer.
The resemblance between them was uncanny. It was a weird feeling. Knowing what I did about James, I knew I wasn't supposed to like him for what he'd done, yet after hearing his version of events between him and Charlotte I had warmed a little toward him.
I wondered if he was suddenly less offensive to me because of how similar and familiar Sawyer and his brother looked, but I didn't get time to think about it further because Lorna came up alongside me and linked her arm in mine.
"We need you," she said, ignoring her brother and steered me away from him and through the now dancing crowd. "What did he want?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him again.
"He was wishing us luck," I replied, not wishing to cause further animosity.
"The least he can do. Come on, Sawyer needs rescuing," she informed me, and I saw him standing to the right of the French doors into the house with Charlotte still bending his ear. Pulling away from Lorna, I walked quickly toward him and stepped between them, slid my arms around his waist, and he immediately mimicked my move.
"There you are," he murmured seductively, pulling me flush against him and kissing me chastely on the lips.
Looking over my left shoulder to where Charlotte stood with an indignant look on her snooty face. "You still here?" I asked sarcastically.
Sawyer chuckled. "Bye, Charlotte, happy New Year," he added flatly before leading me back inside the house. "What was that about?" Sawyer asked, and I bunched my brow, confused for a second until it dawned on me that he must have been watching me talk to James, despite Charlotte's confrontation.
