Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
She turned to him, jaw slack in shock. “Are you taking her side?”
“There are no sides to take,” he replied harshly. “I just asked you to give us a minute.”
Her jaw clenched, and she shoved past him, stomping back inside and disappearing. I watched her go, staring after her for far longer than I wanted to.
Noah didn’t say anything, and neither did I.
I couldn’t.
There was just… nothing.
Only an empty ache where my words should have been, and I knew what this feeling was as it swept over me.
Closure.
It was the closure I’d wanted, and now that I was getting it, I regretted ever asking for it.
Because this? This was true closure. It’d been painfully obvious that friendship was something we’d struggle to have, both because of our past and because of the visceral hatred his girlfriend had for me, but I’d hoped that maybe… Maybe we’d be able to one day reach that point as time went on.
That wasn’t going to happen now.
This closure was a full shut door.
And that stupid, stupid little, teeny tiny piece of me that held a naïve, immature hope of something more fizzled away, and I felt nothing but a melancholy emptiness that seemed to settle into my bones, weighing me down.
“It’s not—” Noah started.
“Congratulations.” The word scratched its way out of my throat, forcing its way into existence, void of any emotion.
He parted his lips to say something, but I turned around and walked straight to my car, not pausing for even a second, and got in it. I shoved my keys in the ignition, turned them, and quickly checked my mirrors before pulling out into the street, leaving Noah standing on the doorstep and staring after me.
Pregnant.
Kayla was pregnant.
They were having a baby.
Oh, my God.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I hit ‘send’ on the email to my boss and triumphantly shut down the tab.
I’d spent all night wallowing in self-pity, feeling sorry for myself. I’d needed to lick my emotional wounds for a moment, even going so far as to get a pizza from the Italian restaurant and eat it on the front steps of the annexe, staring at the overgrown garden.
I’d needed it.
I’d just found out that the only man I’d ever loved—perhaps still did love, to an extent—was about to father a baby with a woman who’d hated me on sight.
One evening of feeling sorry for myself was allowed.
Whatever I’d done, it’d worked. I’d woken up this morning determined not to be miserable about it. Our relationship was the one bit of my past with Fox Point I was resoundingly holding onto, and now, I was drawing a line there.
I’d said a thousand times that whatever we’d had was done years ago, and this time, I meant it.
Fox Point was my home now. This bed and breakfast was my home. It’d been a bumpy ride to get here, but here was where I was.
Quitting my job was step one. Getting a surveyor into the B&B was step two.
Well, step three.
I wanted lunch first.
It’d taken me longer than I’d liked to send my resignation to my asshole boss which had killed my whole morning, but it was fine.
I was going to get lunch, then go and see Steph.
Yup.
That’s right.
Clearly, I hadn’t learnt my lesson about dropping in on people unannounced, so I was going to do it for the second time in two days and ask my new friend if she’d murdered her husband.
You know. As one did.
Wasn’t that a topic of conversation for all good friendships?
Now, this might have been naïve of me, but I wasn’t scared of Steph. I truly had no fear that she’d hurt me, even if she was the one who’d killed him. Strange considering how violently Declan had been murdered, but if she had done it, it was the culmination of years of abuse and hate that had come out.
What would I do if she admitted that she’d killed him? I had no idea. A part of me knew I’d have to tell the police—not Noah—but at the same time, a part of me didn’t care.
If you asked me, abusers deserved a knife to the lung.
Nobody had asked me, which was probably for the best given I was the one who’d found him.
I drove into the centre of town and parked up, then walked into the high street to get something to eat. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted, so I kind of just walked up and down the street for a few minutes until I turned off and went to the sandwich shop instead.
The Sandwich Spot was one of the best places for a quick lunch in Fox Point, and I got in line behind everyone else who had the same idea as me. Thankfully, the line moved quickly, and I was soon at the front to place my order. It took no more than five minutes for it to be ready, so I took it gratefully and headed back outside.