Page 121 of Sinful Lies

Her lips quivered, and for a moment, she didn’t speak.

Then a single tear slid down her cheek.

“A broken heart.”

In all the years I’d known her, she’d been untouchable—unshakable.

She hadn’t cried.

She hadn’t cracked.

Seeing her like this was a punch to the gut, the kind that lingered long after the blow.

A thousand questions clawed at my throat, but I swallowed them down, my mind stuck on the fact that she was breaking right in front of me.

Without a word, I pulled her to me, her body stiff before it collapsed into mine. She buried her face in my chest, her tears hot against my skin.

Her leg slid over mine—possessive, desperate.

I just held her tighter, one hand buried in her hair, the other tracing calming circles on her back.

She cried like she hadn’t let herself in years, like every sob tore something out of her that she couldn’t afford to keep anymore.

And I let her.

I let her break down, even though it ripped through my chest—because she was mine to hold together, even in pieces.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

? DEAN CAVANAGH

“We can depend on nobody in this world, and sometimes we even betray ourselves.”

? Dean Cavanagh

Jade

Disgust exploded inside me, sour and burning, crawling up my throat like bile.

I hated myself. Like, really,seriouslyhated myself.

I couldn’t even glance at my reflection without wanting to hurl—or better yet, smash the nearest mirror, and pretend I didn’t exist.

I stormed into the Jimmy Choo store like a woman on a mission, my heels clicking loudly enough to warn everyone to get the hell out of my way.

Retail therapy was the goal, but not just any kind of retail therapy.

I needed something expensive. Something with an edge. Something high enough to make me forget how spectacularly I’d just embarrassed myself.

The shoes gleamed under the lights, practically singing my name. One pair, a killer black stiletto with enough sparkle to blind an entire nation, caught my eye.

Perfect.

I could already imagine wearing them to my own funeral—the one I’d arrange after jumping off the thirteenth floor of my apartment. Because clearly, being this dumb wasn’t survivable.

Ugh.

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