‘I wish you’d never left.’
Her admission has me sucking in a breath—not just because of what she’s said, but because of the raw emotion in her voice, in her eyes. I throw back a gulp of whiskey, feel it burn as the words resonate within me, hammering home how much I feel the same. I know I do.
‘You and me both.’
Her eyes waver and then they look up at me, searching my gaze, looking for answers.
‘Then why did you? How could you?’
Her eyes glisten, and the desperation in her words rips through the heart of me.
‘You know why I left, Lexi.’
She takes a shuddery breath, the hand holding the glass before her lips trembling. ‘No—no, I don’t.’
‘You were there when Dad announced his intentions,’ I say slowly, my voice low with warning. I don’t want to relive that night, but she’s forcing me to do so now. ‘You were there when I told you how much it had hurt, how much I needed you to side with me, how much I loved you and needed your support.’
‘No.’
She’s shaking her head at me vehemently, anger sparking in her glistening blue eyes.
‘Don’t you dare throw love into this. That night had nothing to do with your love for me and everything to do with your own selfish expectations.’
I stagger back a step, shocked that she would throw the same words at me now as she did then, when she knows the damage they caused. ‘How can you say that?’
‘Because it’s the truth. You left us sitting at the dinner table...your mum in tears, your father mad, Liam... Christ, Liam didn’t know what to do. He’d earned that position with your father—he’d worked hard for it and he deserved it. And you—you just expected to be given the same because you were blood.’
She’s shaking from top to toe now, and I can’t even speak. Her argument is something that’s gone around and around in my head for so long.
‘You expected me to walk out on them—on your entire family, my family too—because you felt hard done by.’
‘You were my partner,’ I say coolly, trying to keep my anger at bay. ‘They were only your family because of me.’
She gives a harsh laugh, ‘You said the same that night, if you remember?’
I remember, all right. I remember accusing her of playing brother off against brother, hedging her bets until she settled on the one who would give her the most.
Wasn’t that why I turned up at the registry office? To see for myself that I’d been right to leave? That she was just as scheming as I’d accused her of being?
‘I said a lot of things that night, Lexi, and all of them still hold true.’
She pales, her lips parted in shock. ‘How can you say that?’
‘How?’ I shake my head and walk away. I need air that’s not tainted with her perfume...space without her body’s warmth in it. ‘Because you did exactly what I accused you of. You went and married him, for fuck’s sake! For years I watched the two of you getting close
r and closer, huddled together in the lab, working on project after project. I used to come in, try and coax you out for dinner, drinks—anything but work. And you’d spare me the merest of smiles and tell me, “Later, Cain, later.”’
She drags in a breath and then she laughs, the sound high and grating.
‘Spare me the woe-is-me tale, Cain. I loved you. Loved you so much your accusations crushed me. You made me feel like a dirty whore who would sleep her way to getting what she wanted.’
I flinch. My entire body trying to deflect the harsh vulgarity of it. A whore—no, never. But... ‘You got to keep my family. Hell, you even got to be CEO of the family firm when all was said and done.’
She clutches her stomach with her free hand, her skin ashen now. But she brought the past into this and I can’t stop the words from coming now.
‘You see, the thing is, Lexi, I can forgive my father. Yes, I’m still hurt that he didn’t even consult me, didn’t even offer me a chance to prove my worth before doing what he did. That he didn’t seem to care how it would affect me, how pushed out I would feel. But I can understand his motives—sympathise with them, even. I’ve had years of building up my business, understanding the graft that goes into it, understanding how hard Liam must have worked and why he was worthy—why he deserved it and I did not. But you and Liam...together...’
I shake my head, nausea swelling at the sight of them in my mind’s eye.