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He moved forward, closing the distance between us.

“We good?” he asked against my lips.

“We’re good,” I said on a breath and closed the distance between us.

I could have pulled away from Ty completely, been mad at him for not telling me. But what about what I wasn’t telling him?

He didn’t know half of the things that went on with Max, he didn’t know what the daily struggle that was involved with living with him. He had no idea of the number of scars I carried on the inside, not just on the outside.

There was no way that I could criticize him for not telling me when I was doing exactly the same.

Knowing that there was more to the story than he had told me, made me wary. I hadn’t been given the full story and I was doubting that I would be told what had actually happened.

But as I sat here at the meeting table, looking at Ty, I didn’t doubt what he had told me. I trusted that when he said she hadn’t been his wife for years, that he meant it.

One thing that I did doubt was me, whether I would be able to tell him my secrets.

I had been dreading this meeting since I came back on the compound after the charity function. Miss Maggie had kept my mind off things while she had been here but as soon as she went home last night, my stomach rolled.

Knowing that we would have to talk about her, Serena, made me feel sick. I knew that we all had a past but I needed to digest the information that I’d been given. I hadn’t been able to do that just yet.

I couldn’t stop my eyes from flicking down to Ty’s left hand, imagining the wedding band that would have once sat there.

That, at least, was one thing I hadn’t done. Max was all up for getting married but having Corey away gave me an excuse to wait. At least that came in handy for something.

“Ready?” Ty said to all of us, although his eyes were on me.

They had all been distant with me since the charity function. I understood that they didn’t know what was happening, or how to take the news that Ty’s wife was back in town. To be honest though, I was glad they had kept their distance yesterday. I just wanted to spend time with Eli and Miss Maggie and forget about everything that had happened. Now, it was time to face the music.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head and picked up my pen that sat on top of the notepad.

“Where do you wanna start, boss?” Evan said from above his laptop screen, his eyes flicking to me and then back to Ty.

Rolling my eyes, I said, “Let’s start with Serena.” May as well start with the one subject they were all scared to talk about around me.

You could have heard a pin drop with the silence that greeted me.

“Seriously? It’s fine. We’re fine,” I said way too high pitched to even remotely come across as ‘being fine’.

Ty leaned over, his hand resting on my knee and whispered, “You sure, sweetheart?”

“Yeah.” I gritted my teeth from saying anything else.

What they didn’t realize was, they were making it worse. If they didn’t make a big deal out of it, and just got on with what we needed to discuss, then it would be fine. I kept saying that word ‘fine’, but I really was fine.

At least, that was what I would keeping telling myself.

“Right,” Luke said, clearing his throat. “So, Serena and Daley are working together?”

“Seems that way,” Ty said, pulling back away from me.

“So is the charity even a real charity? Or is it just a front?” Kitty asked, leaning forward in her seat.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Evan answered. He was still tapping away at his laptop, his face in deep concentration.

“If it is just a front, that means that they’re working together. But if it’s not a front, then it could just be Daley.” Ty looked to all of us, gaging our reaction.

There was no point in them speculating, we needed hard evidence one way or another. Without it, we hadn’t got a clue who was behind it.