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The cold expression lingered as he swirled his drink, before his gaze locked on mine and softened.
“Enough.”
He settled next to me, dipping the cushion further and tipping me a little closer to his side, before he plucked the glass from my shaking grip.
“You okay?”
The concern cracked me in two.
“F-fine,” I strangled out.
His brows nearly touching, he reached out and stroked my knuckles, stilling my fingers, which were knotting and tangling in the hem of my dress.
My shoulders slumped a touch. “I feel like a beloved pet sprouted ten heads and tried to bite mine off,” I whispered, as if saying it out loud made it real. As if not uttering the words would somehow derail us back to the alternate universe where Liam hadn’t eviscerated me.
His warm hand curled around both of mine, and we shared a long shaky exhale.
“Yeah, sounds about right.”
His eyes searched my face for the longest time, mirroring my own shock and pain. His grip tightened, thumb stroking my knuckles, each pass untangling something inside me, until the rage poured out, as if it had been given permission.
“I should’ve slapped him!” My voice cracked on the words.
“He doesn’t deserve even that,” he said, almost… gentle.
As though that had opened the floodgates, hurt and anger seeped out of me.
Arm wrapped around my shoulders, he sat there and listened as tears flowed.
Time crawled, slow and uncaring, until the fire, too, bled out, leaving only the brittleness of my lungs and the sharp pain along the front of my ribs.
“I thought he was my friend.”
My voice splintered on the word, my chest alongside it.
Chapter thirty-eight
Josh
Two things registered almost at the same time:
I wanted to kill Liam. Slowly, painfully.
And seeing Mia shaking and crying with rage undid me.
“How could I have been s-so b-blind?”
Her fracturing voice rang out louder than it should’ve in the empty, silent lounge, tightening the vise around my ribs until they cracked.
“Nu-huh, none of that,” I said, a little sharper than I’d meant. “Hey. Look at me.”
Two gentle fingers tipped her face towards me, and my thumb brushed away a tear. Another fell right after.
“This is not your fault. He fooled you—hell, he fooled me, and I knew him longer.”
The sound of her sobs lodged itself between my ribs, cutting a million times. I would’ve done anything to take her pain away, if only I could. She talked herself hoarse as I wiped the tears or kissed them away, as my low murmurs of reassurance echoed off the walls.
I wasn’t sure she even heard them.
