Page 43 of My Sweetest Agony

I shouldn’t say it.

I shouldn’t speak the poison that’s been seeping into my heart since I got that call that he was dead.

Especially not to Camden.

But I can’t seem to stop myself now that the question is hanging out there.

“Because I think he was…he was cheating on me.”

Cam recoils, his jaw locking so tightly and eyes flashing with so much rage that heat seems to lick across the blue.

He leans forward across the table, close enough to make me tremble. “Listen to me very carefully, Ivy, because I need to make sure you hear me. Drew loved you. More than anything in this world. You lit up his life and were the center of it. He never would have considered even looking at another woman, let alone touching one like that. Drew never would have cheated on you. Never.”

My bottom lip quivers, another sob threatening to spill out. “But, he lied to me that night. He told me he was going to the hospital, but he was on the other side of town. He was?—”

He reaches out and pulls my hands into his, his touch warm and strong as he clasps them tightly. Rough callouses brush across my skin, sending a little shiver through me. “He was not cheating on you.”

The sob slips out, and Cam refuses to let go so I can try to cover my mouth again and prevent the rest of the people in the bar from becoming unwitting spectators to my breakdown.

Strong hands squeeze my fingers, and Cam keeps his gaze locked with mine, though it’s now blurry with tears. “Do you hear me, Ivy?”

I nod, sniffling.

“Do you believe me?”

Do I?

I so badly want to say that I do.

I so badly wish I could believe that there’s some innocent explanation for why Drew left me in bed alone in the middle of the night, lied about where he was going, and drove across town to an area he had no business being in other than another woman.

But I haven’t been able to come up with one in the weeks since he died.

Not a single one.

I shake my head. “I-I can’t. And you don’t know. You weren’t here. You weren’t even speaking with him when it happened.”

A muscle in his clenched jaw tics, his eyes hardening as he leans even closer, so close that his warm breath flutters across my lips. “I do know because he told me. He told me he was in love with you the day you met. He knew then, Ivy. He knew. He called me and said, ‘I just met the woman I’m going to marry.’ And from that moment on, you were it for him.”

His words stoke a flame that had dwindled to ashes, the one that always burned so brightly when I was with Drew. The warmth of his love and that feeling of safety and contentment that always wrapped around me when I was in his arms.

Cam reaches up with one hand and brushes away my tears, a sad smile turning up his lips. “Don’t ever forget that, Ivy. Don’t ever question it again. Okay?”

This time, I nod.

This time, I don’t question it.

Because Cam has just settled that restless demon that has chased me since Drew’s death.

12

CAM

The music pulsates.

My body thrums.

Images flash through my head.