Page 99 of The Moment You Know

I don’t think getting together to talk about your uncle—or anything else, for that matter—is a good idea. I’ve moved on and I’m in a really good place right now in my life and I don’t want anything to jeopardize that. I’m sorry if this disappoints you, but I’m asking you to please respect my wishes. I hope you’re doing well.

David

“Holy shit,” he murmured, remembering Jules saying he’d ‘moved on’ at the hospital, which hadn’t made any sense to him.

He read the email about the book, her offer to let him read it before it published, and then his reply declining the offer. When he was done, he looked at Paige with anguished eyes. “I didn’t see these … and I didn’t write these responses.”

“I know that now. But someone obviously did,” Paige said softly, willing to bet any future sexual enjoyment she might have on the fact that the person she’d been exchanging emails with was Ashley.

David’s heart was beating heavily in his chest and his muscles felt tight, as if his anger was making them constrict as he took in the bigger picture. What Ashley had done with his phone had been a breach of trust, but this deliberate and on-going interference was unforgivable. The number of decisions she had made for him in the past few years without his knowledge was staggering. “Jesus. I just can’t … believe this.”

“It does change things, doesn’t it?” she asked. “Everything I thought I knew is a lie and everything I felt was a lie. And for you as well.”

His nod was bitter. And, as furious as he was, he also knew his fury was a little diluted since it was happening to him after the fact. However, it had all happened to Paige in real time, each of his responses a blow that she’d had to deal with as they’d been dealt. “I really thought you didn’t tell me about the book on purpose, but I’m glad that wasn’t how it was. It’s better to know that Ashley fucked me over, than to think you were being …”

“An uncaring asshole?”

He gave a short laugh. “Yeah.”

Clasping her hands together, she said slowly, “Since we’re on the subject of Ashley fucking you over …”

“Jesus Christ, there’s more?”

Thinking about the book she’d sent him that he clearly hadn’t gotten—not if he’d had to find out about it from his mom months later—she gave him a pointed look. “So, even though ‘you’ said that you didn’t want to read my book, I still hoped you’d change your mind, so I mailed you a copy right after it was published.”

“You did?”

“I sent it to you at the studio and since you obviously never got it, I’m going to assume Ashley intercepted the book and kept it from you.”

David only half heard her, his mind replaying Ashley’s reaction when he had showed her the copy he’d gotten from Valerie—Ashley had acted like she’d never seen it before, convincingly so.

He was living with a goddamn sociopath. “That’s probably a good assumption.”

Paige released a long sigh as the hits kept coming. “I’m going to assume she read the note I wrote you, too.”

“The note?”

“I wrote you a note on the inside of the book.” Paige pressed her lips together. “It was sort of personal.”

How much acid was there in a person’s stomach? It felt like he had a gallon or more churning in there. “What did it say?”

“It said that I knew you didn’t want to read the book but I hoped you’d change your mind someday. It also said that it was my story, which impacted our story and ultimately ruined it. I wished you all the best, saying you deserved it. I said that while our time together probably wasn’t the best part of your life, I wanted you to know it was the best part of mine and I wished things had been different. I also said that none of it was your fault,” she told him, her voice catching a little at the end, the thought of Ashley having read all that causing physical pain.

“Well … shit.”

David honestly didn’t know if Ashley had read the note—or any of the book—but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a no-brainer that she probably had read both.

And read them months ago.

David leaned forward and heaved the mother of all sighs, full of disbelief and disgust.

“Are you okay?” Paige asked.

Her question almost made him laugh. Was he okay? Fuck, no. Not even a little bit.

He shook his head and slowly got to his feet. Then, realizing he was still holding her phone, he set it on her desk with a forced smile. “But I will be, after I clean house,” he told her, with a noticeable edge in his voice.

Then, before she could ask what he meant by that cryptic comment, he was gone.

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