Savannah. “That girl is the answer to my fucked-up soul. She’s my everything. And I’m not gonna risk that because you’re a coward.”
Madison’s shoulders curved in as her head slowly shook. As all that fear and pain she’d been hiding bled from her until she was viciously shaking. “Beau, please. You don’t understand—”
A huff punched from my lungs.
“You don’t understand . . .” Her hands moved to her stomach before they were suddenly in her hair. Gripping at her head as she looked at me, pleading with me with that look alone. “You don’t understand what you’ll be doing to all of us! Risking your relationship by not telling Savannah? Beau, all of our relationships are going to be ruined when you do.”
My stare fell to the floor as her words caused a moment of doubt. Of hesitation. Before I remembered that my relationships were already being ruined, and they would only continue going down that path until we fixed this. Until we could fight for forgiveness.
And I would fight.
For Savannah, I would fight to the ends of the earth to win her heart. To earn her trust again. I would do whatever it took.
Determination built inside me, drowning out the doubt. With a look at Madison that conveyed exactly what I planned to do, I started for the door.
“I think I’m pregnant.”
Chains reached up and brought me to a jarring stop. The world tilted. The room spun. My stomach clenched.
No, no, no. Oh God, no.
“Hunter’s,” she added quickly. “If I even am.”
“If,” I seethed as I looked back at her. “You’re just gonna throw that shit out there when you don’t even know?”
“I’m two weeks late . . . more than.”
I sucked in shallow breaths as I tried to remember when spring break had been and what month we were in now. How long it had been since that wreck of a night.
I’d been sure of the timeline just half an hour before. But at that moment, I couldn’t be sure of anything.
“Shit,” I hissed as I shook my head, trying to clear it.
She lifted her hands in a pleading motion. “See what you’ll be doing. The chances of Hunter and Savannah understanding or forgiving us for what happened are—” She choked on her words, her face creasing with emotion. “Low. So low. But if I’m pregnant? They’re not going to believe what really happened. They’re not going to believe it was a one-time thing—a one-time mistake. Beau, you will be destroying all of us.”
“We already destroyed us,” I murmured. “We’ve already done that, Madison. Don’t you get that?” When her body swayed like her legs might give out on her, I admitted, “I’m afraid when Savannah says she’s going to hang out with you. I fucking hold my breath when she says she talked to you. I can barely look at my brother, and when he mentions you? I feel like I’m gonna snap. When we’re all together? I’m terrified they’re gonna notice something’s wrong between us and figure it out. And if you’re pregnant? Jesus, Madison.” I roughed my hands over my face and sucked in a fortifying breath. “I can’t keep going on like this. This is killing me and hurting my relationship with Savannah. I have to tell her.”
“Then, I’ll go!” she cried out. “I’ll go, I’ll leave. Just don’t do this.”
I stilled, confusion pulsing through my veins and giving way to suspicion as I tried to decode her offer. “What?”
One of her hands loosely gestured to herself before falling, her body shaking so fiercely she could barely speak. “Everything you just said . . . it kept coming back to me. Savannah with me. Talking to me. Hunter talking about me, or us near each other.” Her head moved in a jerky nod as a sob tore from her throat. “I’ll leave.”
“What do you mean, you’ll leave?”
“Leave,” she nearly yelled. “Leave Amber. Leave so this stops, and you won’t do what you’re about to!”
Surprise raced through me before doubt crept in because Madison had been with my brother even longer than I’d been with Savannah. There was no way she’d just leave.
“And how does that not destroy you and my brother?”
She sagged against the wall and silently cried. Hands gripping her stomach and chest as her grief filled the room and mixed with my own.
I studied her tears and her pain. All that emotion I thought she hadn’t been drowning in all this time, but I’d been wrong. She’d just been hiding her agony