I’d been lying my entire life.
Everything I did, everything I touched, became a part of a lie I’d conjured up long ago in order to tolerate the son of bitch looking back at me in the mirror. But this lie would protect the only thing I wanted in this world.Thislie wouldn’t be coated with shame.
No, I would wear this one like a badge of honor.
“Margo, you underestimate the lengths I would go to ensure your well-being,” I murmured darkly. “If lying keeps you safe, then yes, I will.”
She tore her eyes from me, her butterfly tattoo moving as she tried swallowing. I let her have that. There was a lot to take in. “So, we fake it?” she finally asked.
I couldn’t give her a choice. If I did, she would tell me to go to hell and leave. That simply wasn’t an option.
“Whoever did this to you thinks you’re alone,” I told her. “He would’ve never laid a hand on you if he knew you were with me.”
“That’s bold of you to assume.”
“You have no idea what kind of man you let into your bed, Temper,” I whispered, holding her eyes.
“You’re a good man,” she whispered back. “You’re the guy who has it all together. Grayson told me so.”
I pushed that back too. “Who did this to you?” I asked, getting back on track. She opened her mouth, but I swiftly added, “Don’t bullshit me, Margo. Give it to me straight.”
She shook her head. “Nothing about this story is straightforward.”
“Then I’ll be with you at every twist and turn as you tell it to me,” I returned. “Leave nothing out.”
She looked like she wanted to run and hide.
My body moved on its own, going to her and crouching down. I looked up at her, utterly captivated, surrounded by her sage green. She had no idea what she’d done to me, how deep her hooks were, and when she pulled them out, I was ready to bleed out in front of her, to give her everything I had.
“Start,” I commanded.
“It was Marcus Bennett,” she shamefully whispered, as if it was some dirty secret. “My brother.”
I inhaled a sharp breath through my nose and looked toward the windows, taking in the orange glow of the dock lights lining the edge of Astoria. I expected her to say Gordon. Slowly, I rose to my feet, ready to move away from her again, put some distance between us before I lost my shit.
Her fucking brother.
Her hand shot out, soft fingers wrapping around my wrist. “It’s complicated.”
Staring down at her, fury boiling in my chest, I growled, “A man hitting a woman isn’t complicated, Margo.”
“But—”
“Don’t youdaretry to protect him. I don’t give a fuck if he is your blood,” I clipped.
Her bottom lip trembled. “I’m not—I just—” She choked back a sob, her hand at my wrist going to her mouth. I waited, and when she exploded, I wanted to drop to my knees and take her into my arms. “Everything is so fucked, Hayes! I don’t know how—how he could do this to me. I’m his fucking sister, for crying out loud! All I’ve ever done was try to protect him. I wanted nothing but the best for him, and before his teenage years, I could practically see the potential he had to be a good man. The future he could’ve had.” Tears were streaming down her face now. “How can I still love someone who hurt me?” she murmured through her shaking fingers. “Why can’t my heart let them go?”
Jesus fuck, I was going to kill him.
“Because you’re a good person with a good soul,” I told her simply, moving back to the door. If I stayed close to her, I would do something stupid. “Good people hold on to things because hope tells them to.”
“Hope?”
I nodded. “The longer you let hope control you, the more you have to hold on to it. Hope convinces you that people will change, get better, apologize for hurting you. But in reality, beautiful, people don’t change. What you see is you get. Hope lets you be a punching bag while love whispers in your ear, telling you that you’re doing the right thing.”
She was studying me, a look in her eyes I’d never seen before as Dela popped into my head. I rolled my neck. “You wanna release the pain? Then let the hope burning inside you die.”
“I—”