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He stalked away from her, not bothering to look back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LAURA RAN BACK into the condo, slamming the patio door shut behind her. Tears streamed down her face as she hugged herself. Was she being oversensitive? Was it the pregnancy hormones? Or had Mark been a total jerk? She was just trying to help.
She felt as though she was right back in the relationship with Dean, when he’d shut her out and given her the cold shoulder. That look in Mark’s eyes, the coldness, it made her believe they might be over.
She was just trying to help. Just trying to help Mark overcome his stupid pride. Edward was willing to help, and she knew that they had history, but the fact was the Timothy would never sail if they didn’t get it fixed, and Edward was the only man on the island who could get the job done.
What was she even doing here? This wasn’t her fight. All she’d tried to do was help Mark fulfill his dreams of sailing around the world, but what about her hopes? What about her dreams? Did Mark even care about those?
She couldn’t even tell him about the baby in her belly. She thought about breaking the news now and hearing him tell her the baby was just one more way she was meddling. The thoughts felt like tiny pricks of a needle. Stabs of sharp, thin pain.
She could leave. She could head to the airport right now. But first, she’d wait. See if the brothers killed each other. If they started throwing punches, someone would need to call the police.
Laura went back out on the patio, determined to watch.
* * *
EDWARD STALKED DOWN about twenty feet along the beach and then turned to face Mark. He glowered at him, every ounce of muscle in his body tense. Mark knew that look, the one Edward saved for moments he was particularly pissed, like when they were kids and Mark scuffed Edward’s new baseball glove. Edward had always been high-strung, hard to manage, demanding. Why their father loved him better was beyond Mark. When Mark looked at his brother, he just saw someone who spent his life spoiled, with everything, including affection, handed to him on a silver platter. What Mark never understood was why, when Edward had so much, he still felt the need to take from him. Over and over again.
“You’re going to hit me? Then go on, hit me. I was just trying to help you,” Edward began.
“I told you that I never want your help.” Mark’s jaw clenched.
“Well, tell your girlfriend that because she’s the one who came pleading to me.”
Mark flinched. He hated the idea of Laura asking Edward for anything. “She doesn’t know you like I know you.”
“How long are you going to be mad at me?” Edward asked, throwing up his hands. “It’s not my fault you had Elle arrested, and then I helped her, and she fell in love with me. That’s not my fault.”
“She was my wife.”
“You didn’t treat her like your wife. You shut her out. You blamed her for Timothy’s death.” Edward strode forward, and poked him in the chest.
Mark felt the guilt blossom there. He did blame his ex-wife for Timothy’s death. If she hadn’t taken those pills, she would’ve been more awake, more aware, and she’d never have let Timothy walk into the ocean that day. “She wasn’t watching him,” he said. “She had taken those pills. Did you know about that? The pill problem?”
Edward went silent for a minute. “Yeah, I know. She told me.”
This surprised Mark.
“Taking those pills was a mistake that she beats herself up for every single day,” Edward said. “She punished herself enough. She didn’t need you to try to get her arrested.” His eyes flashed with anger.
“I wanted to get her help. That’s all.”
“Really? Was that all? You weren’t trying to punish her?”
Mark hesitated. Was he? Maybe a small part of him was. “She sure did get pregnant again in a hurry. She sure doesn’t mind replacing Timothy with a new model.”
Edward let out an exasperated sigh. He backed away from Mark, turning his back on him and angrily running his hands through his hair.
“Before the pregnancy, did you know that Elle tried to kill herself?”
That stopped Mark cold. “No. How?”
“Those pills you like to lord over her head. She took a whole bottle of them.”
Mark felt stunned. He’d never heard this. He’d never even realized Elle had been so affected. She just seemed to be the one who had everything together…who bounced back when he didn’t.
“I made her throw them up, and then I rushed her to the ER,” Edward said. “I did that. And then she started seeing a counselor and she got better and she kicked those pills. Did you know that? Kicked them cold.”
