Page 66 of Unofficial

"Which is why I was blindsided when I learned she was messing around behind my back. I found out five months before we were set to walk down the aisle."

Gasping, she stares at him with wide eyes, her mouth open. His eyes glance up to her face, and he both loves and hates the pain she shows. The pain for his pain. "How'd you find out?"

"I didn't have to go into work until later in the day because of an appointment. I don't remember what it was now, but Sam was running late. We had sex in the shower that morning, and we lost track of time. She left without her phone, which I found when I heard it chime. Realizing she probably needed it for work, I grabbed it to drive it to her."

"It was Zach, wasn't it?"

Kade nods. "The text from him told her what hotel room he was in that night. She told me she had to stay late for a work meeting, and he'd told her to wear the black panty set he bought her."

"That's oddly specific," she mutters.

Laughing dryly, he nods. "Instead of bringing her phone to her, I went through her messages. I'd never felt like I needed to before, but I should have. There were messages between them. Plans, talking about things they'd done, how they couldn't wait to see each other again, and then there were the many, many pictures exchanged. Pictures she never thought to send to me that I would've loved getting."

"And this was five months before you were supposed to get married?"

He nods again. "Yep, I called in sick to work, skipped whatever appointment it was I had, and I went looking through her dresser. She had an entire drawer of panties and lingerie I'd never seen before, and I found the black number he mentioned with the price tags still on them. I took them, set them on the coffee table, and waited with her phone next to it, knowing she had to come back to get it eventually."

"You confronted her? What happened?" Jess asks, her eyes as wide as saucers now.

Kade finds a strange comfort in her, and her eyes look so concerned for him. She sits on the edge of her seat, waiting for him to tell her what happened next. Her hand grips his tightly, and he feels her pulse racing. The fact he thought he could live without this beautiful blonde, green-eyed beauty makes him realize how stupid he really is.

"She walked in and found me sitting there."

"She knew you knew?"

Nodding, he can't tear his eyes from hers. "Yep. She asks if Zach had texted, and I told her he had. I grabbed the panty set he wanted her to wear in case she wanted to go change. She sat down and asked if I'd gone through their text history, and I said yes. She was so matter-of-fact, I wanted to punch the wall."

"She wasn't sorry?"

"No, she wasn't. I asked what the hell this was, and she said she'd fallen for Zach. They hooked up a couple of times in college when I was home for the weekend for family things, and he understood what she wanted from life in a way I never could. They'd been sleeping together for close to five years at this point and carried on an entire relationship behind my back."

Jess blinks and sighs. "I don't know what to say, Kade. Nothing seems like it conveys the right sentiment."

"I know."

"Was she going to call off the wedding at some point? And how long before you walked down the aisle was she planning to wait?"

He laughs. "That's what I asked her. I found out less than six months before we were supposed to be married that she was in love with someone else. She said she never had any intention of running off with the best man or calling off the wedding."

"What?"

"She said the last thing she wanted to do was hurt me, which is why she and Zach never planned to tell me. I asked her what it was I was lacking to make her seek something from somewhere else, and she said there was nothing. We just weren't her long-term goal, but she knew I had abandonment issues."

The moment he says the words, he realizes how similar they are to questions Jess asked him the night after she caught him with Lena. And he'd given her the same messed up answers Sam had given him.

"Wait," Jess says, interrupting his thoughts. "This woman basically said there was nothing this guy, who was supposed to be your best friend, did or had that you didn't? She just felt he was who she was meant to end up with, but she never said anything because she knew you'd have an issue with being left?"

Kade smiles. "Yeah, basically."

"Bitch," she mutters. "Sorry, I know I don't know her, but that sounds like something a bitch would do."

Lifting her hand to his lips, he kisses it. "You can call her whatever you want to. She was going to have her cake and eat it, too. Marry me and carry on a relationship with Zach. I think she wanted to get caught. It made it easier that I found out and left her rather than having the tough conversation to confess what she’d done."

"She got to skip the hard part of breaking your heart."

"I left that night and never came back to the apartment. After I left, I met Zach at the hotel, where he told her he was and beat him within an inch of his life. I took off, crashed my truck, and he had me arrested. He dropped the charges when his father learned of the situation and told him how terrible the publicity would be. And I swore I'd never let anyone get close enough to be able to hurt me like that again because it destroyed me."

"I know the feeling."

---