Echo (Bleeding Hearts #1)(58)

“Brayden?” I hung up the phone immediately.

“I’m not here to see you,” he snarled, forging towards Ryland’s office with purpose.

I flung my chair back and chased after him, nearly toppling over in my heels as I rounded the corner. I was fast, but I wasn’t as fast as him.

I burst into Ryland’s office, just in time to see the surprise on his face as Brayden barreled around his desk. Ryland stood up, only to be met with Brayden’s fist across his jaw.

I’d seen Brayden’s fist knock other men out cold, but Ryland didn’t even flinch from the pain or the bloody lip he’d inflicted. He wiped it across his sleeve with a look of disgust and took a menacing step forward.

“You son of a bitch!” Brayden drew back his arm again.

Ryland wore a malicious smile that scared me, and I needed to act fast. I inserted myself in the middle of them and slammed my hands against Brayden’s chest, shoving him backwards.

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Just stop it. What the hell are you doing, Brayden?”

“No, what the hell are you doing?” his voice was filled with disgust. “How could you sleep with this bastard?”

“Because I love him,” I bit back. “And who I do, or do not sleep with is none of your business. I’m not a little girl anymore.”

“No, you certainly aren’t,” he sneered. “I don’t even recognize you. Norma-Jean was right, you’ve given up on this family.”

His words shocked and infuriated me, and before I could stop myself, I reached out and slapped him.

“How dare you put that on me?” I snapped. “You have no idea what I’ve had to do these last five years. You have no idea what I had to do to get you out!”

“I didn’t want out.” He waved his hand towards Ryland. “Couldn’t you understand that? I didn’t want you anywhere near him. This is what he wanted all along.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why don’t you ask your boyfriend?” Brayden seethed.

I turned to Ryland, and he disregarded me. His jaw was set and his eyes cold as they remained fixed on Brayden.

“That’s right, he’s not going to tell you.” Brayden laughed dryly. “You have no f*ckin’ clue who he is or what he’s capable of. And now you’re too wrapped up in him to see any of it.”

“Then tell me,” I challenged him. “Tell me yourself what he’s done. What is it that you’ve both been hiding from me all these years? Because obviously, I can’t believe a word either one of you says.”

Brayden looked at me and shook his head, all the fight suddenly gone out of him.

“Come home, Brighton. Leave this mess behind and come home.”





Chapter Twenty-Four



I’d thrown myself into my projects over the last two weeks, spending hours on end in the sewing room.

Ryland would stop in from time to time, trying to find some semblance of conversation in the ocean between us. It wasn’t working. This time, I didn’t know how to fix the distance. I didn’t even know if I could.

I was angry. So f*cking angry. At him, at Brayden, at Norma-Jean… and everyone else who had ever lied to me. I’d never felt so much anger in my life, and quite frankly, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

So I bedazzled. I tore apart fabric with scissors and sewed it back together. Then I bedazzled some more.

“I have to go to a business dinner.” Ryland’s voice carried from the doorway. “I’m assuming you’d like to take a pass on joining me?”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t even look at him, and I was thankful he hadn’t tried to touch me either. Because he knew. He knew I was about to implode. So he’d left me alone. Did I want to go to a business dinner with him? Hell f*cking no, I didn’t.

I heard him sigh as he padded away, and the click of the front door a few moments later. It resounded through the apartment like the sound of a prison door shutting. Closing me in. Because that’s where I was. Imprisoned in a game where I didn’t know the rules. Where I didn’t know who to trust anymore. Where I lost everyone I ever loved.

I was still feeling sorry for myself an hour later when Nicole popped her head in and surprised me.

“What is all this?” she asked as she stepped inside.

I hadn’t told her I was sewing because I’d been too wrapped up in my emotions to have a real conversation with anyone.

“It’s just a place for me to putter around,” I said.

“This is really cool…” Her voice faltered when her eyes fell on the black sewing machine in front of me. For a moment, she looked like she was in pain.

“Nicole?”

She straightened her spine and walked back towards the door. “I brought you some dinner.”

“Oh.” I blinked. “Thanks?”

“Ryland told me to,” she admitted. “But I wanted to check on you myself and see how you were doing.”

I stood up and folded up the piece I’d been working on, deciding I’d punished it enough for one evening.

I followed Nicole out to the breakfast bar and sat down as she pulled out containers of Sushi. She handed me one, and I chewed through a California Roll in record time, not tasting a single thing.