“You wanted me gone, I’m gone. She’s not following.”
“You’re so sure—”
“I fucked her sister.”
Her brows rose, and she blinked thrice.
I’d surprised the implacable Tansy… with a lie.
It didn’t matter; it had still burned like the truth. Abigail had still been crushed under its weight. I still wouldn’t be able to go back to her, couldn’t save myself and say, Love me again. I’m not who you think I am. I’m not actually that guy. You were wrong.
Truth, lie, it was still razing and blighted betrayal.
The only difference was I might be able to sleep at night.
Maybe.
All Gemma and I did was kiss, and that was for show. I probably should have done more; it would’ve made the break cleaner. Would’ve made the temptation to go back to Abigail easier to avoid, but it was simply transactional between Gemma and me. Gemma needed something of mine, and I took that opportunity. In exchange, Gemma gave me her dress and lingerie. I don’t know why she needed what she took. She wasn’t going to tell me, and I didn’t have it in me to care.
I glanced down the hallway. I didn’t know how long I had until Abigail got off the floor. I rubbed my chest, trying not to think about her on it. Below us, the party still continued on… her engagement party.
“Your turn,” I said.
There were two things I needed from Tansy Crowne. Abigail’s security updated, and Edward Harlington gone from her life forever. In exchange, I had to do one terrible deed. In the long run, it was nothing.
Break up with her.
But not just break up with her. Tansy made it pretty fucking clear Abigail couldn’t follow me, couldn’t contact me, couldn’t so much as look for me. In return, she’d break off the engagement, she’d get her guards, she’d get a life she should’ve had, the one I couldn’t give.
The life she should’ve had.
“Abigail was curiously absent for her engagement party and photos.” Tansy pinned me with a knowing look, and another wave of nausea hit. “It will be easy to change the story. No one will ever know there was an engagement. It was just another party.”
It seemed like every ugly, jagged piece of this puzzle had fallen into place. But I did wonder what was in this for someone like Tansy Crowne.
She arched an artfully plucked brow. “Something on your mind, Theo?”
“Why?” I didn’t expect Tansy to tell me, but I had to ask.
“You don’t belong here, Theo. You never did. Abigail’s weakness threatens all of us.”
I don’t know why it had taken me so long to realize Tansy Crowne was the puppet master pulling and ripping apart our strings. If I’d taken one look beyond us, it would have made so much more sense.
“It was you. You sent me away.”
She tilted her head. “Of course.”
That single head tilt threw me, nearly made it impossible to speak. Tansy was never trying to hide she’d done it. Abigail and I were both just too blinded by our fears.
All these years wasted, and now too late for any more.
“Would you ever have approved of me?” I wondered.
“No,” she said easily.
It didn’t matter anyway. It was over now.
I straightened.