Page 84 of The Omega's Fake Mate

“I'll figure something out,” he said shortly. “Trust me, I'm a grown man. Even if some people might not feel that way.”

Point taken.

“I'll call you in the morning,” I said, running a hand through my hair. And then, I walked out the door, a nail driving deeper into my heart with every step that I took.

I was ready to give up everything.

What did that even mean?

31

Nick

As soon asthe hospital cleared Rhys, I took him back to LA with me. After all, I still had an unoccupied room there as long as Kade wasn't using it. I'd already given notice, but I still had a few more weeks before I had to worry about my landlord actually kicking me out. For now, it was a safe space—far away from Connecticut, and from Oceanport.

My fight with Zander lay three days back now, and we hadn't talked much at all during that time. As promised, he'd called me the morning after, but I hadn't been ready to have an actual conversation, and he'd clued in to that fact pretty quickly. I told him that I was going back to LA for a little while, and he'd quietly agreed.

There hadn't been much more to say. I loved him, but I was alsopissed.

Rhys didn't talk much either, except to thank me for taking care of him—not that I needed any thanks. He didn't ask about Zander until we reached my apartment in LA. “Isn't your husband coming?” he asked just as soon as I'd given him a tour of the tiny apartment.

I'd forgotten that he thought Zander was my husband. Looked like I had some explaining to do. “Zander and I had a fight,” I said. “And we aren't married.”

Rhys looked at me critically, the same way he used to study his textbooks. The bruising around his eyes had faded a bit, but it was still much too visible for my taste. “What do you mean you're not married?”

I shrugged and sank on the couch, patting the space beside me so he would sit too. He really shouldn't be up on his feet for too long. I needed to try to get some food into him soon as well. “We kind of made that up,” I told Rhys once he joined me on the couch. “You said I could only come see you if I was married, so I asked Zander to pretend with me.”

Rhys' eyebrows climbed high on his forehead. “I can't believe you fooled me like that! You two looked so good together! But now you aren't...” He paused and glanced at my belly, the question he wanted to ask obvious on his face.

“The child is Zander's. I didn't lie about that.”

“Oh, okay. So youarea couple. You're just not married?”

“I guess you could say that. I didn't really plan any of this. Things just kind of got out of hand.”

“Please tell me that the two of you were a couplebeforeyou visited me.”

“Um...” I scratched the back of my head.

Rhys shot me a look I knew only too well from our childhood days. It was a look which said that a) he couldn't believe I was being serious right now, and b) that the two of us were related.

“Hey,” I said. “I'm hardly the only one here making bad decisions.”

My brother cringed. “Touché.”

Silence fell over the small living room as both of us contemplated our most recent life's choices.

“What made you leave in the end?” I asked when I couldn't hold the question back any longer.

“Honestly?” Rhys bit his lower lip. “I love my husband.” He held up a hand when he saw me start to protest. “Spare me the comments, brother. I love him and I wanted to have children with him, but I realized that I didn't want to raise them in that place—or any Vinist community, really.” Leaning back, he sighed. “Is that weird? That I ran away to protect children that don't even exist?”

“It's not weird,” I said, putting an arm around my brother's shoulders. “I think it's the smartest thing you could have done.”

“Even though I got beat up?”

“That's not your fault.”

An unamused sound escaped his lips. “It was my decision to get involved with that community in the first place. You always told me I was being stupid. Maybe I should have listened to you.”