Page 95 of What He Always Knew

“Charlie?” I asked, making my way toward her.

“Please, just, I need a minute.”

“Okay.” I held up my hands, and when she turned, I kept them there. Slowly, I stepped toward her, and the more I watched her face, the more it twisted with grief, the more my stomach knotted. “What’s wrong?”

She cried more, shaking her head.

“He’ll be okay,” I tried. “I know it was hard. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling but I’m here. I’m right here,” I told her. “Just let me hold you, let me take the pain away.”

“It’s not Cameron.”

I paused, still holding my hands up. “What is it then?”

“I haven’t gone to him,” she whispered. “I haven’t been home yet.”

“Oh,” I answered, confusion sweeping over me. “Well, did you want to talk before you go? Do you want me to go with you?”

Her bottom lip slipped between her teeth. “Reese…”

At the sound of my name, the coldest chill of my life swept over me in a rush.

It was the way she said it, the way her face crumpled as it tumbled from her lips, the way the syllable rolled off like an apology.

My confidence was zapped like a bug drawn to a false light, one designed to kill, and the truth settled in like the darkest death.

“It’s him.”

My voice broke with the words, with the way Charlie’s hands flew to cover her mouth when I said them.

“It’s him, isn’t it? You’re choosing him.”

“Reese—”

She reached for me, her small hand wrapping around my forearm, and my instinct was to pull away. But once she touched me, I knew I couldn’t.

I would never be able to.

“No,” I said, shaking my head, my eyes searching hers. “Charlie, you can’t. You can’t choose him. It’s us, it’s always been us. I make you happy, can’t you see? I love you. Iloveyou. Don’t you love me?”

“I do,” she cried. “Reese, I love you so much it hurts.”

“But you love him more?”

She pressed her lips together, squeezing her eyes shut just the same as she set more tears free.

Black invaded my vision, and I moved back to the piano bench, falling down into it harder than I intended. One hand braced on the keys, sounding a loud, abrasive collision of notes, and the other found my bouncing knee.

“He hurt you,” I whispered. “He cheated on you, Charlie.”

“He didn’t.”

I looked up, watching as she moved slowly toward me.

“He never slept with her.”

My mouth fell open. “What? How…”

“I walked in when she was on top of him, but he had already told her to get off. She told him she wanted him, and he said no.” Charlie shrugged. “Yes, he betrayed me. He found comfort in another woman when he should have come to me. But he never slept with her,” she said. “It was me who cheated, Reese. And only me.”