Frayed Silk(41)

“I never wanted to.” My eyes widen because he can’t mean that. “You don’t. You’re not …” I can’t even bring myself to say it.

“In love with you? And why can’t I be?” His tone turns colder.

I glance around nervously. “Because it was only a few weeks, Jared, and you know why,” I whisper-hiss. “I told you from the start that it couldn’t go anywhere.”

He chuckles. “Relax, Blondie. I’m not that far gone.”

I swallow. “Okay,” I breathe. “Okay then.”

And I don’t feel stung by his admission at all, only relieved.

“Um, can we talk on Tuesday?” I ask hesitantly when he stays quiet.

I hear him exhale as if he’s smoking. “Sure, Blondie. We can talk on Tuesday.” He hangs up as soon as the words leave his mouth.

I pull the phone away from my ear and stare at it. Okay, so that went well. I snort to myself. I’m a thirty-two-year-old woman. A wife with two kids. And I think I just had to dump my fling—or whatever he was—over the phone. If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be here, that this would be what became of my life, I’d think they were fucking nuts. I put my phone away and make my way through the rest of the aisles, grabbing what I need. Stopping just before the last aisle to grab some chips from the end display, I hear a familiar voice.

“I don’t care what she says. This is fucked. I just went around there with the appraiser, and she wouldn’t even let them in the door.” I move forward, peeking into the last aisle and finding Dylan Fitzgerald—Fiona’s husband. Or soon-to-be ex.

He grabs something off the shelf and tosses it into the basket hanging over his suited arm. “I don’t care. I want the house on the market. It’s fucking tainted,” he snaps into the phone held to his ear. My brows furrow at his words, and I start to back away. Now probably isn’t the best time to talk to him. But then he turns, his brown eyes falling on me as he looks over his shoulder and says, “Gotta go. Just send the paperwork through to my office asap.” He hangs up, turning on his heel and approaching me.

“Dahlia, hi.” He stops in front of me.

“Hey.” I wave awkwardly.

“How’ve you been?” He drags a hand through his blond hair.

“Um, good. How about you? I saw Fiona the other day …” I trail off.

He nods, averting his gaze for a moment. “Yeah, it’s been difficult, to say the least.”

“How are the boys handling it?” It’s hard to judge with the few times I’ve seen them at school.

“All right, actually. They think staying at a hotel is awesome.” He chuckles.

I force a smile, feeling a little uncomfortable, what with the state I last saw his wife in and all. “I went to the house on Wednesday, actually. Fiona doesn’t seem to be taking it too well,” I admit, for all the good it might do. Which probably isn’t much and he likely already knows exactly how she’s handling it.

His eyes widen. “What? You’ve been …” He blows out a heavy breath. I frown and something stirs in my gut at his baffled expression. “Look, for what it’s worth, tell Leo I’m sorry. That I had no idea, I never would’ve. Christ, you’re still friends with her? I’m sorry, but shit, it just doesn’t make sense.”

I’m so confused, and it must show because realization dawns on his handsome, clean-shaven face. “Holy shit, you don’t even know, do you?”

“Know what?” I shake my head.

His throat bobs as he swallows, running a hand through his hair again and leaving the short strands standing in a neat disarray.

“The reason I left her. I found the tapes.”

My grip tightens on my shopping cart. “Tapes?”

“Fiona and Leo …”

No. No, no, no. I start backing up, needing to get out of here. I don’t want to hear it; I don’t need to. It’s written all over his face.

“Stop, please. I have no idea why you don’t already know, but you deserve to.”

I close my eyes as he says the words. The words that I know are going to destroy me. But what he says, what actually comes out of his mouth, destroys me in a completely different way than I could have ever expected, “The night of our anniversary party after you’d left and we’d passed out … She raped your husband.”

My eyes fly open. Raped my … “What?” I gasp when I finally find my voice.

He nods. “I couldn’t believe what I saw myself, but she’s done it before, to others, by the looks of it. I found five tapes, and one of them was of her and Leo.” He scrubs a palm down his face. “She drugged him. I don’t know, but he was practically passed out the whole time. And the stuff she did …” He stops when he sees my face paling.

I feel bile rise up my throat. He curses, grabs my cart, and directs me to the checkout line. I don’t say a word as he puts my groceries through, pays for them, and helps me get them to my car.

“Shit. I’m sorry. Are you okay to drive home? I can call the office, maybe sit with you for a while until someone comes?”

Coming out of my daze, I finally focus my eyes on his worried face. “Uh, it’s okay,” I mumble and quickly grab a hundred-dollar bill from my purse. “Here, for the groceries.”