Page 184 of By His Play

Her eyes narrow on mine as anger radiates from her.

Welcome to my world, sweetheart.

“You do not get to let yourself into my home and then stand there and make demands like I owe you something.”

“You do fucking owe me something. You owe me the truth,” I bellow.

She huffs in disbelief.

“What truth, Kieran?”

“That you’re back. Did you not think I’d want to know the second you drove into Chicago?”

Her shoulders slump a little. As much as I’m glad to see her back down, I fucking hate it in equal measures.

I need this.

I need the fire, the shouting, the screaming.

I need to know that she cares too.

“Do you think I didn’t want to?” she confesses. “Do you think it wasn’t the first thing I wanted to do when I found out I needed to come back? Do you think I haven’t stared at your contact every single day, trying to summon up the courage to talk to you? To hear your voice?”

Some of my anger dissipates at her words and the wrought expression on her face. “W-what?”

“Henry called me last week. Jasmine was in an accident.”

I stare at her blankly.

Why didn’t I know this?

“I drove back on Friday. I’ve been here all weekend. Is that what you wanted to know? That I’ve been lying to you for a week? That I’ve been here for four days without telling you?”

The longer I stare at her, the more my anger ebbs away, and what she just told me settles in my head.

“You were scared to call me?” I ask, hating that I’ve done anything to make her feel that way.

I want to be her safe place. Always.

“Things are fucked up, Kieran. Everything is fucked up.”

“Only if we let it be,” I say, my voice softening.

A bitter laugh spills from her lips.

“We broke everything, Kieran. What we were before...it’s gone. We can never go back to that. Not since we?—”

She sucks in a sharp breath, cutting herself off as a huge wave of fear washes through me.

I can’t lose her. I just can’t.

“Fucked?” I offer.

Effie shakes her head, dropping her face into her hands.

“I’m not doing this right now, Kieran. I don’t have the energy.”

“Fine. Then don’t. Go and do whatever it was you were planning. I’m ordering food; I’m starving.”

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