“What did you do?” Sebastian asked.
“I told my mother the unvarnished truth.” She closed her eyes and remembered her mother’s expression. It had been a gradual transformation from disbelief to shock. The pain had etched into her mother’s face and Ashley didn’t think it would ever disappear. “I had been harsh and I didn’t spare her feelings. I was the one who told my mother about his long-standing affair with her best friend.”
Sebastian showed no reaction. He wasn’t scandalized by her parents’ choices or her actions. Most people were and couldn’t wait to hear all the dirty details. Instead, he said, “That had to have been the most difficult moment in your life.”
“No,” she admitted for the first time. “It had been a relief. I felt we could have a new start. I wanted to end the drama and the fear. I never felt safe while I was growing up. I never knew when another fight would happen.”
She wasn’t sure why she was telling Sebastian this. Ashley had never shared this secret. She had destroyed her family and no matter how much she stayed on Inez Key and barred herself from the world, she would never find redemption.
But Ashley didn’t feel the need to hide this from Sebastian. If anything, she was compelled to share it with him. Her instincts told her that he would understand.
“I didn’t care that I betrayed my father,” Ashley said, rubbing her hands over her cold arms. “I felt like he had betrayed us a long time ago.”
“I take it that your father found out.”
“Yes, he shipped me off to college. I should have been grateful to get out of that toxic environment, but instead I retaliated.” She had been hurt and out of control. She didn’t think she had done anything wrong and her father should have been the one who was punished. “I should have stopped, but instead I told my mother about his other...transgressions. The ones that the tabloids hadn’t uncovered. My mother responded by shutting me out of her life.”
“Both your parents punished you for telling the truth.”
“A month later they were dead,” she said as the old grief hit her like a big wave. “Instead of protecting my family, I destroyed it. I caused so much pain.”
“You didn’t know that would be the end result.”
“I knew it wouldn’t end quietly. That wasn’t their style.” She walked past Sebastian, no longer able to face him. She had to get away and find somewhere she could grieve and suffer alone. “People always want to know what triggered the murder-suicide. No one has figured out that I’m the one who set everything into motion.”
“Ashley?” he called after her.
She reluctantly turned around, prepared to see the condemnation and disgust in Sebastian’s eyes. “What?”
“Whatever happened to the best friend?” he asked. She realized he had already figured out but was looking for confirmation. “The one who had an affair with your father?”
Only he would ask her that. He knew how her mind worked. It should scare her, but she felt he empathized. He knew she wasn’t as innocent as she appeared. What he didn’t know was that it was the last time she’d confronted and took action instead of running away and hiding.
“I wanted vengeance,” she said. “It was wrong of me. I should have let it go, but I couldn’t let her get away unscathed. She had pretended to be a loyal friend, but I made sure everyone discovered her true nature. She lost everything that was important to her—her status, her social connections and her husband.”
“We’re not so different,” Sebastian said quietly. “I would have done the same.”
Ashley silently walked to Sebastian and rested her head against his shoulder. She sighed as he wrapped his arms around her. She wasn’t sure if it had been smart to reveal her darkest secret to Sebastian. He had used her confessions in the past. He had broken his promises.
If he wanted to destroy her completely, nothing could stop him from using this information.
* * *
The next morning Sebastian covertly watched Ashley at the breakfast table. Her tousled hair fell over her face like a veil and she wore his bathrobe that overwhelmed her feminine frame. She grasped her mug with both hands and stared into the coffee as if it held all the answers of life.