Page 100 of Filthy Rich Temptation

‘Yes. You were.’ Her voice cracks. ‘Because if you believed I was strong – if you really trusted me to hold it together – you wouldn’t have hidden this from me. I expect it from Taylor. I can cope with it from Taylor. Butyou…’

‘I was scared, Sadie. Scared of what would happen if you knew?—’

‘If I knew, I’d shatter, right?’

I reach out, trembling, desperate to bridge the distance, to soften the blow –anythingto stop this. But she jerks back, eyes wild, tears spilling over, each one a knife through my heart.

‘You played house with me, pretended like everything was okay?—’

‘We had the situation in hand. Taylor was okay. Axel was?—’

‘For fuck’s sake, Theo! It doesn’t matter how in hand you had it,Ishould have known. He’smyabuser.Myex. And he hurtmysister. And instead of telling me, you bring me here under thepretenceof aholiday. Treating me and Lottie to adreamvacation. When all the while, you were really just hiding me like some kid who couldn’t handle her own reality?’

‘No— no, I was trying to protect you. Trying to do what’s best for you.’

She lets out a short, bitter laugh. ‘There it is, again. Protection. Just like Danny. He was all about protecting me, knowing what was best for me…’

Her words slice deeper than shouting ever could. Danny. Me. Thesame?

‘All that stuff you said, all that stuff you had me believing – but you’re no better. Making me feel like I’m weak, powerless. Something to fix. To control…’ She chokes on the word. ‘And you,’ she points at me, voice low and lethal, ‘you did the exact same thing. Only you smiled while you did it.’

Acid burns the back of my throat. ‘No, Sadie?—’

‘Yes, Theo. Yes!’

‘I just wanted to keep you happy?—’

‘Happy in ignorance? You think that’s what I want? My God, Theo, how can you think that’s okay? Not to tell me thatmy exhurtmy sistertrying to get tome. There’s no justification in the world for that.’

There is. There’s one. And it’s hammering against my ribs, desperate to break free. Love. I love her.

It hits like a sucker punch as I drown in her gaze. Pain etched in every line of her sweet face – a face I know better than my own. A painIcaused.

But how do I say it now? How do I tell her I love her, when in her eyes I’m no better than Danny – the man who twisted love into something so cruel, so poisonous, it drained the life from her?

‘I couldn’t stand to see him take anything more from you,’ I say, the words barely above a whisper. ‘I couldn’t let him hurt you again.’

‘I could’ve coped with him hurting me again,’ she says quietly. ‘What I can’t cope with is you doing it.’

She shakes her head, then goes still. Behind her tears, the pain falls away. What’s left in her heart-wrenching blues is colder. Quieter. Final. Like she sees me clearly now – the whole of me – and doesn’t like what she sees.

I want to deny it. Say she’s wrong. Sayanything.

But I can’t.

Because she’s right.

And it guts me – draining my words, my breath, my body.

‘I thought you believed in me, Theo. I thought you saw strength in me – enough to face the past, enough to move on. But all this time, you weren’t helping me heal. You were helping me hide. Worse, you told yourself it was the opposite.’ She draws a breath and swipes away the tears from her cheeks, lifts her chin. ‘I thought Danny broke me. I thought you broke me seven years ago. But it’s nothing compared to this. You didn’t see me then. And you definitely don’t see me now.’

‘That’s not true, Sadie.’ I take a step towards her, hoping proximity might somehow fix what I’ve shattered, help her to believe what I’m saying. ‘Idosee you.’

‘No,’ she says, clear and unforgiving. ‘You still see Taylor’s little sister. And I can live with her seeing me that way. But notyou. This is over, Theo, whateverthiswas. We’re leaving.’

‘You can’t just go.’ I reach for her, both hands out.

She flinches likeI’mpoison. ‘Oh, yes I can.’