Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“Calm down,” she says. “What’s your problem?”
“My problem is that something happened to my woman yesterday and you didn’t have the fucking decency to let me know that she was okay.”
“Your woman?” Cassie scoffs, her brows so far up they need a different area code. “She’s not your woman, Carter. You broke her heart and left me to pick up the pieces. You have no right to know what’s going on in her life anymore.”
Frustration burns me to the core, and I take a step back, my hands at my temples, desperate for the kind of peace that only Bri can offer me. “Cass,” I say with a heavy groan. “Please, for fuck’s sake. I get it. I fucked up, okay? Is that what you need to hear? I lost the best fucking thing that ever happened to me, and I hurt the only woman I will ever love, but please, Cass. Put me out of my fucking misery and just tell me that she’s alright.”
Cass sighs and crosses her arms over her chest, hardly able to meet my eye. “She’s fine,” she tells me, giving in to my desperation. “She had a shitty day and then got into a car accident on her way home. The asshole in front slammed on the brakes and there was a five-car pileup. Her car is completely totaled.”
My eyes widen in horror. The idea of Bri being involved in that makes my heart race right out of my fucking chest. “The fuck, Cass?” I demand, feeling my pockets for my keys and wallet, ready to run out of here as images of Bri in a mangled car torment my mind. “How could you have not told me that?”
“Fucking hell. Let me finish, asshole,” Cass demands, stepping in front of me to block my way as I start for the door. “I told you she was okay. You don’t need to go racing out of here trying to be her hero. All you’re going to do is hurt her more. She has whiplash and a sore chest, and the last thing she needs right now is to have to deal with you. Apart from that, she’s absolutely fine. She was too pissed off with the guy who slammed on the brakes that she didn’t even have a chance to get shaken up about it.”
I let out a breath and have to force myself to sit down, desperately trying to reel in my emotions. “She’s really okay?” I ask, looking up at my little sister and letting her see the undeniable devastation that resides in my heart.
Cass watches me a moment before a softness creeps into her eyes, and that chip on her shoulder finally begins to fade away. “Yeah,” she finally says. “She’s okay.”
Relief pulses through me. I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to Bri. It’s one thing being apart like this, but if I had lost her from this world and wasn’t by her side . . . fuck. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“I’m sorry,” Cass says, taking the seat next to me. “I should have told you as soon as I knew. That wasn’t fair, but I’m just so pissed off with you. I can’t seem to shake it. Every time I see her hurting, it just . . . it eats me up inside.”
“I know it does,” I tell her, putting my arm around her and pulling her into my side, hating how much this is affecting her. “You have every right to be angry with me. I hurt your best friend.”
“You did, but I forget that you’re hurting too.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I tell her. “I knew it was going to destroy me, and I did it anyway. Bri though, she was blindsided.”
“You got that right,” Cass mutters under her breath, unable to help the attitude that fills her tone. “But I understand why you did it.”
We sit in silence, lost in our thoughts, when I finally get the courage to ask the most basic question that’s been plaguing me since the day I ended it. “How is she really doing, Cass?” I ask.
I’ve avoided asking this very question, terrified of just how badly she was still hurting, but it’s been five months now, so she’s got time on her side. Surely she would have started to heal.
“Do you want an honest answer or the one that’s going to make you feel better about yourself?” she questions.
Shit. I suddenly don’t know if I want to hear this. “Don’t hold back, Cass.”
“She’s broken, Carter. I’ve never seen someone in so much pain, not even me when I was in New York and away from Jax. You broke her to pieces, and she hasn’t been able to put herself back together. She’s lost,” she tells me. “She misses you, and it kills her that she can’t have the life she always wanted with you.”