Page 64 of Little Bitter Truths
He drew in a deep breath, opened his mouth, and then closed it, an expression of anguish crossing his face.He looked at me as if begging for help.
He didn’t deserve my help, but Mia did.
“For starters, his name isn’t Simon Sullivan,” I said.“It’s Jeremy Shepherd.”
She threw her hands in the air, head shaking.“Shepherd?As intheJeremy Shepherd, Christian’s brother?”
He nodded.“Mia, I can explain.”
She turned toward me, as if hoping I’d tell her this was some kind of misunderstanding.
I remained quiet.
Jeremy needed to answer for himself.
“You lied to me,” she said.
Jeremy took a step toward her.“It wasn’t my intention to deceive you.I never meant for it to go this far.”
“Don’t,” she snapped, holding up a hand.“Don’t come any closer.”
He took a step back.“All right, I won’t.”
“I need to understand something,” she said, her voice gaining strength now.“Every conversation we’ve had.Every message and moment we shared.Was any of it real?”
“How I feel about you now … it’s real, Mia.That’s the truth.”
She huffed a laugh.“What wouldyouknow about the truth?”
“I know I made a mistake?—”
“Amistake?You lied about who you are.That’s not a mistake, Jeremy.That’s a choice.”
“I’m sorry.I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“It’s easy.You start by saying, ‘Hi, I’m Jeremy, Christian’s brother.’”
“When I first met you, I panicked.”
“Why?”
“After my brother died, I was at his house, looking through some of his things.I found a drawer full of photos of the two of you, and I asked my mom who you were.”
“If you had bothered to be in his life, you would have known about me, but you didn’t.”
“My relationship with Christian was complicated,” he said.“There are a lot of things from our past I’m guessing you don’t know about.”
“None of it matters now, though, does it?”
“What I’m trying to say is, my mom told me about your relationship with Christian.She said you hadn’t kept in touch since the breakup, and I get it.Seems like he put you through a lot.”
She rolled her eyes.“You have no idea.”
“I wanted to meet you, to get to know the woman who meant so much to him.But I wasn’t sure you’d give me the time of day, so I came up with a plan.And yeah, now I see that it wasn’t a good one.”
“You manipulated me.I feel used, like I was an idiot to believe anything you’ve ever said.”
“I just wanted the chance to get to know you.”
