Page 66 of Outcast’s Return

“I don’t even know why I’m here in this stupid penthouse,” she says. “I don’t know why I even agreed to this stupid Castaways task. What am I doing? Why the hell am I here?”

For a second, there’s another silence between us. Jolie’s hand, gripping the glass of water, trembles.

I move to say something else, but then...

Jolie’s glass slips through her fingers and smashes into a million pieces.

24

JOLIE

The glass smashes on the tiled kitchen floor.

And then the stupid tears come again.

And he’s coming toward me. It’s just like when he knelt down beside me on the couch. Too much caring. It’s too damn much for me to handle.

I try to ignore Fabien and bend down to pick up the shattered pieces of glass, but they slip through my tear-soaked hands.

“Let me,” Fabien says, reaching for my hands before the glass can cut.

He’s trying to fix this, but this is not his job to fix. He should be hating me.

Why isn’t he hating me?

“I don’t need your help,” I murmur.

“You’re going to cut yourself...”

“I don’t need your help!”

My yell punctures the air like the smash of the glass.

Fabien locks eyes with mine.

“Jolie.”

His voice is warm. Too warm.

“Everyone’s betrayed me,” I whimper. “And I’ve betrayed everyone.”

I’m so angry he’s not angry at me.

“That’s not true.”

“I’m a fuck-up.”

“Now that’s really not true.”

I want to continue yelling at him, but that’s not going to make things better, and it’s certainly not going to change anything that’s happened between him and me and work and Steven and Clement...

I’ve been holding myself together for all these years, but all it takes is for me to ruin my brother’s business and for me to reunite with the man I ruined to bring down everything.

I don’t know what to do, so I just cry.

“Come here.”

Fabien’s not fighting me like he should. He’s reaching for me now.