Chapter 40

I bounce on my toes like an excited teenager about to go on her first date while I wait for Nathan to step off the elevator. I’ve missed him so much, which seems silly given that he’s only been gone for three days, but any amount of time without him lately feels long and torturous. Smoothing down my dress, I think about the black lace I have on underneath and smile. I intend to welcome him home with all the enthusiasm of his own personal cheer squad.

The doors open and he steps out, and I let out an involuntary shriek as I bound forward and throw my arms around his neck.

“Mel.” His voice is hoarse, full of pain, and I pull back and stare at his face. God, he looks awful. Pale and drawn. His eyes are bloodshot, and he has a thick shadow of stubble across his jaw, which usually only serves to make him sexier, but today it seems to make him look worn down.

“Are you okay? Are you sick?”

Shaking his head, he takes my hands in his. “Let’s go sit.”

My heart rate triples, and my legs begin to shake. “Why? What’s wrong?”

He walks toward the den, leading me with him. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” I whisper, afraid of what that something is given the haunted look in his eyes.

I take a seat on the sofa, and he sits on the coffee table in front of me, his hands clasped between his spread thighs.

He stares at me, and I swallow down a thick knot of anxiety. I have never seen this man at a loss for words. “Nate, what is it? You’re scaring me.”

“Mel—” His Adam’s apple bobs. “I don’t know how to tell you this, corazón, so I’m just going to come right out with it.”

I nod, bracing myself.

“Last night at the hotel …” He scrubs a hand over his jaw. “There was this woman. A bartender.” I swear I see tears welling in his eyes. “I woke up in bed with her, but she drugged me, Mel. Elijah had me do a test. There were Rohypnol and opioids in my system.”

He was drugged. How? Why would anyone—? Oh, god. My dear sweet Nate, what have they done to you? A strangled gasping sound comes out of me, and my hand flies to my mouth to stifle it.

He grabs my free hand, squeezing it in his. “She was in my bed, Mel, but I swear to you … I swear I don’t remember anything that happened. You know I would never cheat on you. Never.”

Tears leak from the corners of my eyes, and his face falls. He thinks I’m upset with him when that couldn’t be further from the truth. I shake my head. “I—I’m so sorry, Nate.”

“You don’t have to be sorry for me,” he says, his tone soothing, like I’m the one who needs comfort when he’s the one who was sexually assaulted. And I’m a hundred percent sure it was the work of my brother. “I don’t know why the fuck she targeted me, but I’ll find out.” He presses his forehead against my knuckles. “I swear I never would have touched her, corazón. I had no idea what I was doing.”

My stomach twists in a knot. I can’t let him hurt any more than he already has been. He deserves to know the truth, even if that might spell the end of us. “It was Bryce.” The words are a mere whisper, as though that will somehow make them less painful to both of us.

Nathan blinks at me. “What do you mean it was Bryce?”

Oh dear god, I’m about to break both our hearts. “He had this idea about a honey trap.”

Nathan pulls back, his entire body rigid. “A honey what?”

My cheeks burn with heat and shame. “Th-the cheating clause. He had an idea to use a honey trap to get you to cheat, but I—”

“And you fucking knew about this?” Despite knowing I deserve it, I flinch at the harshness of his tone. I deserve far worse.

“In the beginning, yes, I knew he was thinking about it,” I admit. “But once we were married, I told him it was a stupid idea. I pleaded with him not to go ahead with it.”

“But you knew when I proposed to you, when I asked you to never lie to me? You knew that your brother was planning our demise all along? Just to get his hands on a few million dollars?”

Tears roll down my cheeks. “No. Yes. I never agreed to go along with his stupid plan. I just wanted to stop fighting with him, so I let it go. I was only trying to protect my sister.”

He pushes to his feet. “Spare me the goddamn fake tears, Melanie. You fucking used me!”

I stand too and walk over to him, but he backs away. “I didn’t want to use you, Nate. I never would. As soon as you and I started to …”

“What?” He snarls. “Fuck?”

“No! As soon as I realized that we were in this for the long haul and that it wasn’t some stunt, I knew I needed to make sure he wouldn’t go ahead with it. That day when I left my mom’s house so upset—when Teddy brought me to you, remember? I went over there, and I begged him not to go ahead with it. I made him promise, and he did. I swear.”

He stalks closer and towers over me, shaking with rage. “You lied to my face. Not just before we were married but that day when I asked you what happened. You could have told me the truth.”

I can’t breathe. “I didn’t want to lose you.”

His face twists in a snarl. “You lied. You were going to use me for money.”

I nod, shame-faced because those things are technically true.

“You sat back and let me walk into a fucking trap for some woman to drug me and do who the fuck knows what else!”

I shake my head, tears blurring my vision. “No. I had no idea he’d do that. I would never hurt you. He promised he wouldn’t go ahead with it. And I swear I had no idea he’d go that far, Nate. All he said was he’d have a hot woman hit on you. That was it, I swear.”

He scoffs. “You expect me to believe a word that comes out of your lying mouth?”

“Nathan. Please listen to me.” I grab his arm, but he shrugs me off.

“You know what the worst part of this whole thing is, Melanie?” He spits out my name like it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. “The worst part is that I was fucking devastated when I thought I cheated on you. Thinking that I’d done something to hurt you caused me pain like I’ve only ever felt once before in my entire life. And it was wasted on you.”

“No, Nate.” I shake my head. “I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t fucking believe you.” He grabs my purse from the small table beside the sofa and shoves it into my hands. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

“Nathan, just let me—”

“Get the hell out, Melanie, or I’ll have someone come drag you out of here.” His vicious snarl makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I swallow down the wail, filled with frustration and injustice, that wants to roar out of me and wipe the tears from my cheeks.

I did exactly what my brother wanted, and he still found a way to fuck up my life.

Nathan turns away from me, and my heart shatters into a million pieces that I already know can never be put back together.