“Can I sit down?” Kendall asked softly.
Lexie nodded. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Not really.” Kendall eased herself onto the bed and folded her legs beneath her.
“I’m sorry about Julian. You never should have been targeted by that bastard.”
Kendall shrugged. “I shouldn’t have done the things I did either. I knew I wasn’t feeling right. I knew the meds Dr. Kay switched me to weren’t working, but I was riding the high. I’m the one who got myself in debt. I’m the one who stole Kade’s watch. It wasn’t Julian who did those things. It was me.” Her voice caught as she choked on a sob.
Lexie wanted to pull her twin into her arms, but she understood this was a breakthrough and Kendall needed to have it. So she waited for her sister to pull herself together and to go on.
Kendall shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m so sorry,” she said, rocking back and forth. “I’m humiliated, and I don’t like the person I’ve become. I’m so lucky your boyfriend is such a decent guy or I’d be in jail right now.”
Lexie expelled a long breath, grateful her twin was coming to these realizations on her own. She met Kendall’s gaze. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she said, correcting that misconception.
“But I thought you two were involved.”
“We were. Until he accused me of stealing and betraying him with Julian.”
Get the fuck out.
She shivered at the memory of his cold, accusatory tone and how he’d thrown her out of his office as if she meant nothing to him.
“Oh my God. That’s my fault too.” Kendall looked up at Lexie with big, watery eyes. “I’m sure you can fix things. He knows it wasn’t you, and he isn’t pressing charges against me. That’s got to be because of you. Because he loves you.”
Lexie shook her head hard. Love? She was pretty sure he considered himself well rid of her. She brought complications no man in his right mind needed in his life. Because of his relationship with her, he’d ended up vulnerable to Julian’s manipulations.
“Don’t worry about me,” Lexie murmured. “Let’s talk about you.”
Her sister let out a harsh laugh. “What about me? I think I’ve hit the proverbial rock bottom.” She looked away. “I called Dr. Kay and told him I wanted to check myself into an inpatient facility and get help.”
“Kendall!”
“Long term, this time. Not a two-week-and-I’m-out sort of deal. I have to learn to function on my own. To find the right cocktail of meds, to have the correct therapy. I can’t go on like this anymore. The ups and downs are killing me, and worse, they’re hurting you, and I’m so, so tired of hurting too.” Her sister’s rocking continued as she broke down in gulping, loud sobs.
Lexie couldn’t believe her sister was finally reaching out for real long-term help. Admiration welled up inside her.
She crawled over the bed and grabbed her twin, hugging her tight. “It’ll be okay,” she murmured. “I’m so proud of you. So proud. And I’ll be by your side the whole time. You can do this. I know you can.” She stroked her sister’s hair and whispered comforting words in her ear, doing all the things a mother would do. If only they had a capable mother.
Kendall held on to her as she cried like a little girl while Lexie choked back her own tears. Tears for her twin, for the hard life Kendall had, and for Lexie’s own choices and losses.
For Kade, the man who meant everything to her. And the man she had to let go.
* * *
Kade shouldn’t have been surprised when Lexie didn’t show up for work the next morning. He’d fired her. Not just fired her. He’d told her to get the fuck out. Despite all that had gone down with her twin sister yesterday, he hadn’t asked her to come back to him. Not as his PA and not as his woman.
The PA had been a mistake. On a professional level, he needed her to keep things running smoothly. She was always two steps ahead of him and the perfect assistant for a man like him.
Coming back to him, that was another story. Without a doubt, he knew he wanted and needed her in his life, by his side for the long haul. But he was about to make some extremely drastic moves, and he didn’t think it was fair to ask her to stand by his side as he made them.
“Kade.” Luke walked into his office, Derek right behind him.
“Shut the door,” Kade said, walking around his desk and joining his friends.
“I don’t know why. You don’t have an assistant to overhear anything,” Derek said, his sarcastic tone indicating he wasn’t happy with Kade.
He got it. He wasn’t happy with how he’d treated Lexie in this very room yesterday either. He still had to apologize for that, and would when he explained why she no longer had a job. He didn’t want her thinking she was fired. It was more complicated than that. But this meeting had to come first. When all was said and done, he might not have a position for her to return to.