Page 212 of Terms of Exposure
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I shouldn't have told you."
His eyes snapped to mine. "What?"
"I'm sorry," I repeated, my voice barely audible.
His face twisted in agony. "Why are you apologizing?"
"Because you shouldn't be involved in this. You shouldn't have to—"
"To what? Care?" He laughed—a harsh, broken sound. "Candace, I've been falling for you since you insulted my puzzle skills in a hospital room. You think I wouldn't want to know that someone's been terrorizing you?"
The words knocked the ground out from under me.
I stared at him.
He ran a shaky hand through his hair. "Sorry, I shouldn't be yelling at you. I'm just caught off guard is all. I had no idea you were dealing with this." He dropped his hand back to his lap, eyes on the phone, another message lighting up the screen.
Garrett: You stupid fucking cunt.
Sebastian sucked in a breath.
"All that time you spent with me, he was sending you things like this?"
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
"Every day?"
Another nod.
Sebastian's chin trembled. He pressed his lips together hard, but it didn't work. A tear slipped down his cheek, then another.
"That day you showed up with coffee and your hands were shaking—I thought you'd had too much caffeine."
"He'd sent thirty-two messages before noon."
He shook his head.
"You were hurting." The words came out thick. "You were hurting and I didn't even know."
"Sebastian—"
"I should have seen it." His jaw worked, teeth grinding. "I should have—"
I tried to smile. "I'm fin—"
"No, you're not." He sniffed, wiping his nose with his free hand.
I opened my mouth to argue, but he pressed on.
"I couldn't figure it out. You spent hours holding my hand, talking to me, pulling me back. And all I could think waswhy does the angel sound so sad?"
A tear slipped down his cheek mirroring my own.
"I thought maybe it was because of me. Because I was dying, or because you felt sorry for me, or—" He shook his head. "But it wasn't any of that."
"Sebastian—"
"It was him. It had been him this whole time."
