Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
I knew it wouldn’t, but I still felt bad for her when she lost.
She really deserved a win. After all, she was the only one telling the truth about what happened.
But people don’t always get what they deserve.
The loss crushed her.
I didn’t know how to approach her after that.
At the time, I didn’t realize how damaged she would be by what I did, and I thought once the dust settled, I would be able to find an opening.
I couldn’t.
Until that fateful night when I was sitting in my bedroom and I heard a gunshot downstairs.
Cassie herself provided the opening I needed. I should have known she would. She’s my perfect other half, always complementing me.
If I’m the key, she’s the lock I was poured for.
I wasn’t lying when I told her I would do anything for her.
I never want to lie to Cassie at all.
The truth is, I want her to know it was me.
There have been moments I flirted with revealing it, but Tim’s death added a wrinkle I couldn’t have accounted for. Like Russell, I never believed that Cassie had what it took to take a life.
But she did, and now she’s in too deep.
I think she could forgive me for what I did now that she loves me, but I don’t think she would ever be able to forgive herself for killing Tim.
As much as I don’t want a single secret between us, seeing her reaction tonight answered that question definitively.
I have to carry this one. She can never know the truth.
I told Cassie I would rewrite reality to save her, and I meant it. The only reason she’s in this mess now is because I carried that indecision too long. When she asked me that question tonight, I should have been able to answer it. She would have believed me. I could have shut it down immediately.
What’s done is done. I’m not a believer in regrets. I fucked up, and now she’s suffering, but I won’t let it happen again.
I’ll rewrite the final chapter of our history and commit to that version, then we can move forward and put all this behind us.
It’s not like Tim was altogether innocent, anyway. He was perfectly willing to sacrifice Cassie to save me.
He just didn’t know I’d be willing to sacrifice him to save her.
Another explosion lights up the sky, and two more pops accompany it.
Nina sits down next to me.
I think that’s an interesting choice, so I look over at her.
“Hey,” she says with a brave little smile.
“Hey,” I say back.
She looks up at the sky. “Tim loved fireworks.”
I nod, looking up at them as well. “Yeah, he did.”
“Sorry about Cassie leaving.” She looks over at me, somehow unaware that she was the ember that sparked the tinderbox tonight. “What happened?” she asks.
It’s remarkable that in all this time, even knowing that Tim had an identical twin, it has never once occurred to Nina that Cassie might be telling the truth… as she understood it, at least.
But people see what they want to see, and she doesn’t want to see Cassie being right.
I shake my head, my gaze still trained on the sky. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.” Then she adds, “Honestly, though, when is that girl not crashing out? Maybe you dodged a bullet.”
My mouth curves up faintly.
She has no idea how true that is.
Misinterpreting my smile, she’s encouraged.
Her tone turns lightly flirty as she leans over and bumps my shoulder. “She’s not the only girl in Holbrook, you know? I’ll be your firework buddy.”
“Oh yeah?”
She smiles, holding my gaze as the grand finale lights up the sky in so many flashes of light and color that I can see the reflections in her eyes. “Yeah.”
When Tim was around, Nina never looked at me twice either, but his trust fund isn’t the only thing I inherited. Everyone’s interest in me has grown now that there are no longer two options.
Nina has never been shy about letting a guy know she wants him, so as the grand finale ramps up to its big finish, she leans her head on my shoulder to remind me I have options, too.
I’m struck by how easy it all could be.
I don’t have to deal with any of the fallout of what I did.
If I wanted to, I could wrap my arm around Nina and pull her closer.
I could have her lips wrapped around my cock in the next ten minutes.
She would happily warm my bed tonight just like she warmed Tim’s, while somewhere across town, Cassie spends another night crying herself to sleep.
I could move right on with my life, and no one would blame me for doing it.
I’m the one who chose to wound her, but she’s the only one who has to pay for it.
And she’s right.
That’s pretty fucked up.