How to Steal Your Best Friend's Fiancé - London Casey Page 0,88

hiding from it.

This was bad. Maybe.

I poured the glass of wine and Miranda chugged it.

She put the glass down and nodded for more.

I poured her more.

“H-how are… I mean…” I cleared my throat. “What are you doing here?”

“I had to come back to see it for myself,” she said.

“See what?”

“See that it was real. It’s all over. I don’t even know how this happened, Emily.”

I licked my lips. “I heard about the engagement ring. I should have called or something. I didn’t know… I mean with us… things really haven’t been much of a friendship, you know?”

Miranda nodded. “I know, Emily. That’s my fault. It’s that damn building. And it’s Liam. It’s been so hard for me. All I’ve tried to do is fight back and stand my ground.”

She drank the second glass of wine.

My heart twisted.

Now she comes to apologize?

“Look,” Miranda said as she slid the empty glass toward me for more wine. “Forget about everything, Emily. The building. The charges. I can’t live like this anymore. The truth is, my only option is to just get rid of it all. But if I do that, then your business could get shut down.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” I said. “I hate talking about this. I hate that you bought that building and convinced me to stay there. I knew it was a bad deal but I wanted to help you.”

“Wow. I’ve never heard you talk like that.”

“I’m not talking about it again,” I said. “You’re here because…”

Miranda stood up and took a deep breath. Just like that, she had full composure.

She took her glass of wine and paced for a few seconds.

“Everything was there for me,” she said. “The city. The job offers. It was too good to be true. Yet I had something in me… I needed an answer. I needed to know-”

Miranda stopped herself and stared at me.

My fight or flight tried to kick in, wanting me to run.

There was no more running for me.

Emily wasn’t a doormat anymore.

“You’re all dolled up,” she said. “You’re going out tonight.”

“I had plans…”

“And I just show up like this. Let me get out of your hair, Emily.”

“Miranda, stop,” I said. “I can cancel plans or change them.”

“You look pretty.”

“I look terrible,” I said.

I walked to the kitchen and started to wash all the extra makeup off my face.

It also gave me a second to gasp for a deep breath because fucking Miranda was in my fucking apartment.

“Do you want to know why I’m really here?” Miranda asked.

I took a handful of paper towels and dried my face.

I turned to face her and nodded.

“He never chased me down,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Liam. When we were first dating and getting serious, he would always chase me down.”

“Chase you down?”

“If we argued. I would run away. I would say mean things. I would do anything to hurt him. And he always came after me.”

“You hurt him…?”

Miranda nodded. “It was my way of testing him.”

“You did that all these years?”

“Of course. But this time when it counted the most… nothing.”

“Miranda…”

“Just listen to me,” she said. She drank more wine. I knew where this was going already… “Just listen, Emily. We had a huge argument over the phone. We both said we didn’t want to get married to each other. How can that be true? We didn’t do anything for the wedding together. Then he didn’t call me so I sent the ring back. I wanted to see what he would do. Because the Liam I knew would find me. And put that ring back on my finger.”

My heart was done twisting.

Now it was racing.

I was feeling a mixture of anger and guilt.

This new feeling wasn’t that great at all.

“That meant he got the ring and just ignored it. Ignored me. Ignored us.” Miranda groaned and wiped her cheeks with her free hand. “I’m not letting that happen.”

She chugged the rest of what was her third glass of wine.

And when she tried to put it on the counter, she missed completely, letting the glass fall to the floor and shatter.

“I’ll find out the truth,” Miranda said as she walked away without even offering to clean up the mess she made.

I looked down at the broken glass and nodded.

This wasn’t Miranda’s mess.

This was my mess.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Liam

I had a drink as I looked around the apartment.

Tonight I was going to talk to Emily about finding our own place together. Unless, of course, she wanted to stay in her building. If that were the case, then I’d get