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“I caught her with Bron.”

CHAPTER FOUR

VAN

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There are about ten million other reasons I would have believed before that one.

She could have told me Lauren was dead. That she’d robbed a bank and was on the run. Pregnant. Hell, she could have burned City Hall to the ground and framed Everly. Literally any of those would have made more sense than this.

Bron ... and Lauren?

Absolutely not.

There isn’t a reality in the universe where that would ever happen. The words don’t even compute. They just hang in the air, ugly and unnatural. A grotesque limb severed from a body that no one knows what to do with.

“Bron?” I prompt just in case my hearing failed me.

Maybe there is another Bron. A secret Bron. A slightly less repugnant Bron. A Bron Lauren doesn’t despise because she loathes that idiot with a visceral and ancient hatred born from the soul. That kind of venom isn’t performative. It’s primal. That girl would have set herself on fire before ever letting him touch her.

Except, apparently, she had.

Everly gives a shaky nod. “I saw them. I watched them on my kitchen counter. I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t...” She breaks off with another disparaging rock of her head. “I thought it was a mistake. I couldn’t understand how she could ... Lauren wouldn’t, I kept thinking. She’s my sister. She wouldn’t betray me like that. Then...” she hiccups around another sob, “I ran. I got into my car and...”

Something ugly coils in my chest. It’s hot and bitter, an oily sensation of disgust. A raw revulsion that makes me sick at the thought of Everly catching two people she should have trusted committing an act so vile behind her back.

I glance at Lachlan just in case I missed something, but he’s still holding her. Cradling her like she’s breakable. His expression in the muffled light is stunned, but protective.

“You’re sure it was Lauren?” he asks quietly into her temple.

Part of me is relieved I’m not the only one struggling to believe it. The other part is boiling. Rage bubbles hot beneath my skin.

Everly nods, voice ragged. “I didn’t believe it either, but I saw her ... them. It was so clear.” She pulls back just enough to peer into our faces. “Is it me? Did I do something to deserve this? Is it my fault?”

“No!” Lachlan and I both snap in unison.

“This is not your fault,” I try to assure her.

“I tried so hard to get Bron to want me,” she cries, not hearing me. “I did everything to get him to take me to bed but it only made him angry. He said I was acting like a whore, but he couldn’t even be bothered to take her somewhere else. They used my house.” She pauses as a thought occurs to her. “Did they do it in my bed?”

The thought of my little girl fucking anyone never mind a piece of shit like Bron Shaw fills me with loathing. It fuels the need to find the asshole and bury him alive. Not just for touching Lauren but for hurting Everly.

“Don’t think about that,” I tell her, shaking my own thoughts away.

“I just want someone to pick me for once. I’m tired of being alone.”

Every broken hiccup carves into my soul, a brutal reminder that my daughter did this. Caused Everly this pain. That I am also to blame by association.

“You’re not alone, baby,” I try to assure.

Rather than comfort, my words seem to only increase her pain. “I am. I didn’t just lose them. I lost you.”

“You can never lose us,” Lachlan promises, and I nod, but she’s shaking her head.

“You don’t understand.” She wipes at her face, at the tears and mascara streaking her cheeks. “Without them, I can’t keep you. I can’t ... I willonly hurt you.”

Lovingly, Lachlan sweeps a lock of hair off her cheek to tuck behind her ear. “What are you talking about, sweetheart?”