My hands started to shake the more I read. Branson was promising Kiyah forever, and she was waffling between stayingwith me or leaving me for him. And then I reached the text messages from today and had to sit before my legs gave out.
I’m leaving him.
Good girl. Don’t take anything with you. Just leave.
Kiyah?
Have you left yet?
The phone dropped to the floor with a loud clatter as my heart tore in two. I barely registered when Casey scooped it up.
“This-this is so fucked up. She was playing you this whole fucking time. I knew something was going on between them!”
I fell back against the cushions and covered my face with my hands and sobbed.
“She’s been talking to him ever since she left Chicago. This is so fucked up, but I can’t say that I’m surprised.”
I stopped crying long enough to say, “I don’t believe it.”
“Oh, my God,” he said, exasperated. “You must be drunk right now. What the hell do you mean you don’t believe it? The evidence is sitting right in front of your face. Never mind, what the hell am I saying? This is how you’ve always been about Kiyah. I bet she could walk through the door right now and you’d take her back!”
I sniffed back snot and wiped my face with the sleeves of my dress shirt.
“I-I-I should go find her,” I said suddenly. “I gotta call the police. Something could’ve happened.”
Casey’s face shuttered with disbelief. He grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes.
“Bro, she left you to be the First Lady of Texas. She’s not missing. No one kidnapped her. You saw the same texts I saw—she is gone.”
His words hurt, but worse, they made sense.
He released me and started pacing the living room, muttering that he needed a drink.
“This is not on you, Grant, but relationships that have to be kept a secret rarely flourish. The only thing you did wrong here was love a broken woman.”
My throat tightened with emotion that wanted to spill again.
“So what?” I asked hoarsely, “I just sit here and let her go?”
“Yes. You let her go, and then you heal.”
I stared at the phone in his hand again, and grief crashed into me again as I mourned the love I lost and the future I thought we would have.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“I could really use a fucking drink right now,” I said, choking around my words. I couldn’t see them, but I know my eyes shone with fresh tears.
Casey laughed and wiped away a tear. “Me too, but I won’t allow her to take your sobriety from you again. You understand me?”
I nodded.
“I need to call—”
“No,” I whispered. “Please, don’t tell anyone yet. Just let me process this first.”
He lowered his phone and slipped it into his pocket.
“Okay,” he said, sitting opposite me. “I’m here, Grant.”