I deserved everything. Every filthy, nasty thing coming my way wasn’t enough. I deserved to be buried alive, and then burned and tortured because of what I’d put my best girl through.
And the worst part is that there was no way to take it back. Laney had been hurt, and it was my fault. That knowledge killed me, my heart crumpling as another fifth of whiskey burned its way down the hatch. Because I was no one. I was the loser, the misfit, the asshole … and without my sweet girl, there’d be no recovery.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Laney
Penny’s apartment complex appeared around the corner, gray and massive. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see due to the tears in my eyes and snot dripping down my chin. It was so bad that the cabbie didn’t even ask for payment, merely unclicking the locks.
“What happened?” Penny gasped as she flung the door open. Immediately, my buddy led me towards the couch, expression sympathetic. “Is everything alright? Did something happen? Are you hurt?” she coaxed urgently.
I continued to sob, body shaking, words caught in my throat.
The redhead frowned, getting up to boil a kettle of water.
Tea was her solution to every situation, good or bad.
I knew she wanted to help, but I just couldn’t bear to explain what had happened. Hell, I couldn’t quite understand it myself. It was all such a blur. A big, pain-filled blur.
Feeling unseasonably cold, I folded my knees against my chest, wrapping my arms around them, head buried in my thighs.
The coffee-shop scene replayed in my head countless times, but a part of me still refused to believe it had been real.
This was all just one fucked-up nightmare. That’s all. I would soon wake up and this would all be over.
But with each breath, my chest tightened with pain as if the shattered pieces of my heart were stabbing into my lungs, one by one.
After six months, it still burned. The pain was still unbearable, even more so now that I’d seen Mr. Evercore again.
Just my luck.
Maybe I would be better off without a heart. At least then it wouldn’t hurt so bad.
Penny padded in with some tea, offering me a cup.
I merely shook my head.
She sighed, sitting down beside me, hand on my back, rubbing in comforting circles. “Please, Laney, tell me. Did something happen? Did someone hurt you?”
I looked at my friend, sniffling. “Mason.” I croaked.
She jolted back in surprise but didn’t say a word. My nod was sad and slow.
“I was at the coffee shop with Jim. We were just hanging out. Jim said some pretty nasty things about Mason and I got angry,” came my pained voice. “I don’t know why I defended that bastard, but I did. I ended up telling Jim to leave, like he’d done something wrong.”
“Is that all?” Penny soothed, eyes sympathetic. “That’s not so bad.”
I took a deep breath and rubbed my puffy eyes.
“No,” was my ragged whisper. “A few minutes later, Mason appeared. Oh god, oh god,” I moaned, covering my face. “He sat down in front of me and showed me all these pictures.”
Penny interrupted then, expression confused.
“Pictures?”
I nodded sorrowfully, voice still muffled in my hands.
“He hired a PI to follow me.”
Stunned silence.
“What?”
I nodded again, still unable to meet her eyes.
“Apparently, I was just a prison fuck and he didn’t trust me. So he hired a PI to follow me around?”
Penny’s expression was thunderstruck.
“While he was in prison?” she asked, baffled. “How? He was in prison at the time.”
I sighed, finally revealing my tear-stained face.
“Rich guys can do anything,” was my listless voice. “Somehow Mason managed it, and had me followed and photographed. I saw all the evidence.”
Penny couldn’t even answer, her expression horrified. And I nodded slowly, pouring salt on my own wound.
“Oh, and it doesn’t end there,” came my trembling voice. “Mason decided that I was cheating on him with Jim. That’s why he wanted the divorce because he thought I was being unfaithful.” The words almost choked me, they were so unreal.
“But you know what? I was actually wearing the billionaire’s stupid string ring in almost every picture. If he’d really looked at the photos, he would have seen it. But instead, the man labeled me a whore. He said I was cheating,” my voice broke down into sobs.
Penny shook her head, lips turned into a frown.
“What a piece of work. A real asshole you got there.”
Silence followed her comment.
But my heart had broken open, and I started a monologue.
“Was Mason jealous of Jim? I guess it makes some sort of sick sense. After all, most people don’t hang out after they’ve broken up. But then again, things were never serious between us. I thought it would be okay. After all, Jim was just some nerdy guy who needed a friend. A pathetic figure. A man-boy with his video games and his constant crying. It was mean to just kick him to the curb.”