Page 3 of Wanting You
Not until now.
I trusted River. My closest friend.
“All this time…” I mutter.
Sienna is still standing between us, her body tense, her gaze bouncing between mine and River’s as if she’s trying to piece together a puzzle she wasn’t meant to solve.
Hell, she doesn’t deserve to be caught in the middle of this mess. She’s breathing hard, her chest rising and falling, her hands shaking.
But she isn’t the one drowning.
I am.
The past slams into me like a freight train. Twenty fucking years of pain, of questions, of a hole in my chest that never fully closed. Twenty fucking years believing he wasgone, that he was dead, that I would never see his face again except in my nightmares.
But he’s here. He’s standing right in front of me. And it doesn’t make any damned sense.
I clench my fists at my sides. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.
I take a step forward.
Then another.
Jake stiffens. He looks like a ghost. Like he doesn't know how to exist in this room, in this moment, with me staring at him like I’m trying to decide whether to hug him or kill him.
My jaw tightens. “Say something,” I rasp.
Nothing.
He parts his lips, but no words come.
His eyes—fuck, his eyes—aren’t the same. They used to be full of fire, full of life. Now they’re guarded, unreadable. And that terrifies me more than anything.
Sienna swallows hard and turns to face me fully. “Brett, who is he?”
That question hits harder than a bullet.
Who is he?
Do I even know anymore?
I stare at Jake, my chest caving in, the weight of the last two decades pressing down on me. My stomach clenches so tight I think I might be sick.
My hands shake. My throat tightens. My pulse is pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears.
I force the words out, my voice barely more than a whisper.
“He’s Jake,” I say. “And he’s supposed to be dead.”
EPISODE 192
DOPPELGÄNGER
Emily
I’m frozen.
I watched Brett lunge at River, grab his collar. Brett’s blue eyes were—still are—full of rage. Yet I see something else in his gaze as well.
