Page 40 of Friends That Heal Us
“I even came to you when I was questioning everything, and you lied to me. You told me right to my face that Zayn would never cheat on me. And the whole time you two were sleeping together.” Her eyes shift back to me. Her mouth drops. “I was going crazy, and you let me. You made me think I was crazy to even think Zayn would do that to me.” Ezra’s hand comes to rest gently on my shoulder, reassuring me he’s here for me.
Her mouth drops even further as her eyes dart from his hand on my shoulder to him. “I understand what we did. But that doesn’t mean the two of you need to be together.”
Both Ezra and I laugh in a bitter tone looking back at one another.
“It’s not funny.”
“Even before you slept with Zayn, our marriage wasn’t good. You never cared about me. You never cared about us. I don’t think there is a bone in your body that has any care in this world for anyone but yourself.”
Her breath catches in shock. “That’s not true.” She pauses. “I love you.”
He scowls. “You only love yourself. The only thing you loved about me was what I was providing for you.”
“That’s not true, Ezra. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” She points at me. “She always wanted what she couldn’t have.”
Both of us jerk back, shaking in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?” he asks. “It looks like you’re the one who wants everything she has because you slept with her husband.”
She opens her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “You’re done. This is done. You and Zayn are the ones who put us in this position. And now we have to pick up the pieces you two broke. And we will do that however we would like.”
She blinks like she’s trying to gather up another excuse. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
I shake my head. “Like I told Zayn. Something like this doesn’t just happen. His dick didn’t just happen to slip into you. Not only did it happen once, it happened multiple times. So, saying it just happened is a pathetic excuse. Especially when you both continued on with it.”
Ezra steps closer to me. “We’re done listening to both of you make excuses.”
“Ezra,” she whimpers, tears falling from her eyes.
“Rya, stop.” His tone is sharp. “Stop acting like you give a shit about me. If Zayn had been willing to put up with you, I’m sure you wouldn’t be here right now.”
She lets out a sarcastic laugh. “Who says he’s not?”
I’m stunned at how she can flip from sobbing to a sarcastic laugh in an instant like some kind of psychopath.
“That’s the thing. We don’t care.”
“There is nothing left for you here. You two made your choice, now let us make ours.”
She stares at us with a baffled expression, her brows knitting together and her mouth hanging open as if she can’t believe any of this.
It’s not like us to be like this towards people, and I’m sure she sees it and can’t believe it. But we’re both done being dragged down.
We both turn our backs on her and head inside. The door shuts, and we pause for a moment, listening for her next move. When no sound comes from her, I head upstairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EZRA
I watchas Violet drags her body upstairs. I’m sure she’s mentally drained, and it’s also causing her physical exhaustion. After what happened yesterday, finding the box of condoms, and Rya coming over, I would be exhausted too.
I want to say I can’t believe what Rya was saying, but sadly I can believe it. She has always played the victim. It took me a while to understand that she always framed things to make herself seem like the victim. I would even catch her doing it around Violet, and she sometimes fell for it. Just like I did. I think Violet would drop it because sometimes that’s the best thing you can do when dealing with someone like that.
I feel bad for Vi. I can tell this is hurting her. She raises her head high when she is around them to show that she is not hurting, but I know deep down inside it hurts.
She’s human.
It’s only natural.
I, on the other hand, felt the pain while I was still with Rya. Slowly, piece by piece, I was getting over her, over us. She never even noticed. I could tell that much just by the way she acted asif she had no care in the world. And when this last blow hit, it didn’t cut as deep. What’s one more hit from the two people I once loved the most?
