Page 106 of Words We Didn't Say

What…am I…doing?

Strength dissolved from my legs, and without the rage to keep me upright, I crumpled to my knees. My fists were cut and broken, and every muscle ached. I couldn’t move. I watched with a horrified fascination as the man I’d once admired crawled like a shattered crab across the boardroom floor, his breath shallow rasps, the movie star smile missing under the blood and swelling my fists had put there instead.

In the end, I’d been no better than Chris.

What did that make me?

What?

A monster.

“You’re”—Chris gasped a breath—“finished.”

There was nothing left inside me to care.

28

She said, “I love you.”

Eden

“Don’t hang up!” Thefrantic shriek of Michaela’s voice was the only reason I didn’t instantly end the call.

“You’ve got less than a second,” I warned her.

“It’s Zach. He—oh fuck—he just—” Shaky breaths echoed down the line.

I hurdled over the back of the sofa and raced to the front door. “Hewhat?Is he okay?” My heart pounded as panic shot my feet into my sneakers. I covered my phone and called out to Andie.

“He lost it! Like. Fuckinglost it!”Michaela said.“I tried to stop him. He sent this fucking email saying he was quitting, and then he goes into the boardroom and beats the absolute shit out of Chris!”

The hallway spun. I blinked rapidly, trying to focus on Andie standing at the kitchen doorway, a tea towel over her shoulderand a wet bowl in her hand. Her eyebrow went up. I waved her closer.

“Where’s Zach?” The watch house, probably. Did I know any lawyers? Yvette did. She knew everyone.

“I don’t know where he is.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You aren’twithhim?”

“I tried to get in the elevator with him when security escorted him out,” Michaela said. “He yelled at me to fuck off. I wasn’t arguing with him. He looked—he looked—” She sucked in a breath. “Crazy.”

My mouth pinched.This woman.Did she know Zach at all? He’d been edging closer to his breaking point for months, and now he’d shattered into a thousand pieces. I should’ve realised how much pressure was on him. My stomach dived. I shouldn’t have told him what happened with Chris. Inevershould’ve let him walk out the door.

“Did you go to his place to check on him?” I asked Michaela, grabbing my handbag off the hook and slinging it over my shoulder.

“I don’t know where he lives! Sue, his EA, yeah, she told me to fuck off, too. You’re the last person I wanted to call.”

I would’ve rolled my eyes if the situation weren’t so serious. “Whydidyou call me then?”

“You’re listed as his emergency contact.”

I clutched the phone tighter to stop the tremor in my hand. My gaze shot to the front window. The sky was already turning dark. Zach hadn’t called. He hadn’t responded to any of my messages. I’d assumed…

I’d assumed he wasn’t coming back. That he’d chosen his path, and it wasn’t the one we’d walk together.

I’d misjudged him.

And now he was alone.

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