The Price of Inertia (The Seven Sins #4) - Lily Zante Page 0,127

you got sex on tap.” She almost smiles, but it’s the type of smile that makes my blood run cold. Still, I take another step towards her, determined to get through to her. “That is not true. What we had was starting to be more than sex. You made me see things the way I should have. You made me feel.”

“I should never have gotten involved with you.”

“Getting involved with you was one of the best things I ever did.”

She stares at me in open-mouthed silence. That seems to have hit a nerve. I advance a step closer.

I consider telling her the truth, that I’ve fallen for her. But if I told her now it would be taking advantage of her delicate state and I won’t do that. “I care about you and I feel bad that I hurt you.”

“I can’t see you feeling bad about anything, unless you’ve run out of donuts.”

I look at her in surprise. I have changed a lot these past few months. I managed to get out of my rut and she had something to do with it. I’m not that guy anymore.

“I’m truly upset about your mom passing,” I say, ignoring her stab at me. “And I blame myself for breaking your phone and for you not finding out straightaway”.

“You should blame yourself, because it’s your fault.”

“I’ll take this to the grave with me. You cared a lot for your mother and she was lucky she to have had you.”

She jabs a thumb in her chest. “I’m the lucky one. I was lucky that she was my mom.” She sounds as if she’s fighting back tears. I want to put my arms around her and hug her. I want to tell her that I’m going to take care of her and be there for her, but she twists the knife in deeper. “I’m just so sorry that I met you. I wish I hadn’t.”

I refuse to give up. She will always blame me for what happened, and it’s something I have to live with. I can’t turn back time, but I want to make things right for her, if she will let me. “Tell me what I can do to make things better. Let me help you in any way. Let me pay for the funeral.”

Her face drains of color. “Get out!” she yells with an animosity that knocks the air out of my lungs and leaves me struggling to get mouthfuls of air.

“Don’t think this is me being emotional, and all over the place. I hate you, Ward. I regret that I ever met you.”

I shake my head, refusing to believe that this is it. That it’s over.

“Get out and never contact me again,” she begs.

I was going to tell her to ask me anything she wanted and I would answer all of her questions, all those many questions she used to ask me before, all those questions about Lisa. I was prepared to answer everything, but the hate in her eyes rolls off her body in the same way that her desire once used to. I step back. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.”

I nod. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

As I walk to the door she stops me. “I need you to know about the pen.”

I turn around.

“I didn’t misplace it. I never took it. I never touched your things. Jamie took your pen. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to fire him like you did Trevor.”

At first I want to believe that she’s lying. Everything I did, touch her the way I did, all the assumptions I made were based on her taking the pen. I thought she was playing games with me. I believed she had picked up on the unbridled energy I could feel between us.

I can’t speak because her words have tasered me.

“I wouldn’t lie about such a thing,” she assures me, fixing me with a hard stare. My gut tells me this is the truth. I wouldn’t have laid a finger on her had I known this then. Believing she wanted me was the thing that gave me the courage to make my move.

Chapter 53

MARI

I manage to get through my mom's funeral somehow, but it feels as if my body has been through a meat machine, minced into a million pieces, chewed up and regurgitated at the other end.

I am still hollow but most of all, I am bone tired. I'm also still at Jamie's place, almost three weeks after my mom passed,