Page 91 of Edged
That earned me a sardonic laugh. “An apology from you hasn’t meant anything to me in a very long time, Archer. I assure you, it’s not necessary.”
“It means something to me,” I said.
She gestured for me to go on.
“I’m sorry, Mandy. I’m sorry that back then, I didn’t know I was in love with your brother.”
That confession wasn’t what she’d expected, and her head snapped toward me so quickly, I thought her neck might break in half from the force of it.
“I didn’t know a lot of things back then. But the night of my graduation, the night I left, I did know it was wrong of me to go the way I did. Without even saying anything. No explanation.”
“Was it also wrong of you to fuck my brother that night?”
My heart slammed so hard against my ribs I worried the bones were ready to shatter.
“He said you didn’t know,” I whispered, shame washing over me like a tidal wave. Which, at that moment, would have been a blessing. Anything to end the conversation that I’d never imagined myself having with one of the two people I’d hurt so beyond measure and so unfairly.
“If he really thinks that, then he’s a fool.” Mandy made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat. “You’d been gone so long, I went downstairs to check on the two of you, and I…I heard…well, I don’t think I heard everything, but I heard enough.”
My body collapsed in on itself, my elbows going to my knees and my face falling right into my hands. If there’d been a time where I’d ever felt more shame than after her confession, I would have been hard pressed to recall it.
“Oh, my God, Mandy. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Back then?” She gave a cruel laugh that tapered off into something sad. “What would I have said, Archer? And to who? You were gone and Owen was a disaster. He tried so hard to pretend he wasn’t…”
Mandy let out a long breath and leaned back, stretching her arms and legs in front of her.
“I gave him an out because, even though I was in denial, I understood what had happened. I told him you said you’d had a family emergency. That you’d gone to say goodbye to him, and then…”
“Mandy.”
“You said you loved him back then,” she said. “What about now?”
“It’s complicated.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
“I ran into him on accident when he was in California a couple weeks ago, and it was like not a day had passed, at least not for me. Though, that’s not really true. I’m aware of the time that’s passed—”
She cut me off with a hand on my leg. The small diamond in her engagement ring sparkled, and her touch felt as unwanted to me as saying goodbye to Owen had been.
“I do love him still. More than I have words for, and I tried to get him to stay with me, but he had me put him on a plane yesterday. There’s no way I can let go of him again. At least not without a fight.”
Mandy’s lips twisted into a wry grin “Yesterday?”
That was when I remembered he’d been lying to everyone about where he was, but I could ask for forgiveness later. If he’d even talk to me, of course. There were enough lies and silence and secrets between the three of us, I didn’t want any more of it.
“He was with me for the weekend,” I admitted. “Was supposed to come home today, but we argued yesterday and he wanted to go early.”
“You know, I knew he was in California.” She let out a small little laugh as she pulled her hand away from my leg. “I checked him on my phone, whatever that app is.”
I shook my head, knowing how much Owen would hate being caught by her when he’d tried so hard to keep her in the dark.
“I just didn’t know he was with you,” she said.
“He was happy, Mandy.” I didn’t know why, but it was important to me that she understood that. I knew my feelings in the situation didn’t matter, but his? Maybe his did. “It was only for a few days, but he was so happy and things were so good, and I just…”
“You just what, Archer?”
