He took her hand and led her to his truck.
On the ride home, she didn’t see the road through her rage, and she didn’t speak because she couldn’t unclench her jaw.
How could Bran do that to her sister? Perrin had been so happy. She gave that putz two years of devotion, and he’d been seeing Mariella the whole time. He planned to keep seeing her! That was why he wanted to move to the Jersey shore, so he could keep his sidepiece in an apartment back home.
A pinch of guilt nipped when she thought of Mariella as the sidepiece. According to Ryan’s cousin, she had a relationship with him first, which made Perrin the mistress. But that couldn’t be right, because he was marrying Perrin.
Ryan pulled into his driveway but didn’t shut off the truck. She stared blindly at the dashboard. “This is bad.”
He didn’t disagree. “What are you going to tell Perrin?”
“The truth.” She had no choice. “She’s going to be devastated.”
Maggie knew what it was like to have your entire life planned and have it unexpectedly ripped away. She didn’t know if having a target for the blame helped matters or would make things worse.
Ryan’s hand folded around hers. “Do you want me to drive you there?”
The last thing she wanted to do was drive to her parents’ to break her sister’s heart. But she needed to do the right thing. Perrin deserved to find out from someone who loved her, someone who would be there to catch the pieces when her world came crashing down. And she needed to get to her before Bran filled her head with more lies.
Maggie nodded and Ryan put the truck in reverse and backed out of the driveway. She gave him directions to her childhood home, and her blood chilled when she saw Perrin’s car at the curb.
“This is going to be terrible.”
“Do you want me to go inside with you?”
She shook her head.
“Do you want me to wait in the car?”
“No, I’m going to be a while.”
“I can come get you when you’re ready. Just call.”
She appreciated his thoughtfulness, but she had no idea how bad her sister would take the news. Maggie cringed that the “save the dates” had already been sent and the announcement posted in the newspaper that week. She hated knowing how humiliated her sister would feel.
“I’ll probably stay the night. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
When Ryan pulled away, Maggie took a bracing breath and opened the front door. Her mother lifted her gaze from a novel and frowned. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to Perrin.”
“Was she expecting you?”
Because God forbid Maggie show up at her childhood home without a written invitation. “Yes,” she lied and walked down the hall to her sister’s bedroom. She tapped on the door.
“Come in.” Perrin sat on her bed with her laptop open and smiled. “Hey, this is a surprise.”
“Hey.” She closed the door tightly behind her.
“Is everything okay?” She shut the laptop.
“No. I have to tell you something Perrin, and it’s terrible.” Maggie took off her baseball cap and sat on the bed.
Her sister’s face paled. “What is it?”
She broke the news as gently as she could, explaining how she’d found out and how long she believed the affair with Mariella had been going on. At first Perrin denied it, saying it was impossible for Bran to cheat on her, but as reality sank in, her denial evaporated, and she fell apart in Maggie’s arms.
She held her sister and kissed her head as she cried. Maggie was accustomed to heartache, but watching her sister break, somehow seemed worse than her own pain. She cradled her head on her lap as heaving sobs raked Perrin’s body.
“Why? Why would he do this to me? I’m so humiliated. Why wasn’t I enough?”
Maggie’s heart shuddered with empathy. She didn’t have any answers. To her, Perrin was perfect. She was strong and loyal and beautiful in a way that exceeded the usual definition. “Sometimes life’s just unfair.”
“It hurts.”
“I know, honey. It’s going to hurt for a while.”
The door opened. “What’s going on?” Their mother stood at the threshold, her accusing glare burning into Maggie. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Then why is your sister crying? What’s the matter?”
Perrin continued to sob. The pressure to form an explanation churned incoherent, gut wrenching sobs past her throat. It was too much to bear.
“The wedding’s off,” Maggie said abruptly, trying to save her sister the pain.
Knowing her mother, Maggie worried she’d somehow catch the blame for what Bran did, so there was no point in hiding the truth. Her biggest concern right now was taking care of Perrin. And knowing how hard it was to explain an unjustified heartbreak, Maggie saved her the trouble.
“What? Says who?”
“Bran’s been cheating on Perrin.”
Her sister wailed and Maggie rubbed a hand down her back.