Page 49 of Breaking All The Rules

“But I am sorry for discussing what was happening between us with someone else. I didn’t mean to disrespect you. I hadn’t realized what a complete mess I was until Brent called me out on it and told me that I needed to get my head straight. He was right, obviously. But still, I’m sorry that I didn’t know how to talk to you about everything. I haven’t been in love like this before, and it scared me.”

“I’m glad that it helped you to talk things out with him,” I said, feeling somewhat relieved that he had found some comfort in talking to someone that he trusted. In reality, it wasn’t much different than me confiding in Brittany, Lucy, or Gabi. They knew everything that happened in my life, and I would probably go crazy if I had to deal with stuff on my own.

“He was easy to talk to, and he didn’t judge any of it. Maybe it’s because he and Chasity have their own situation going on with his ex, Karly—I don’t know. But it felt nice to know that he could relate, and so could she. I knew that she wanted to talk to you; I just had no idea what it was about. For all I knew, she was going to pull you aside and tell you to run for the hills before you got caught up in all of my bullshit.”

I laughed and shook my head.

“She didn’t say that.” I rolled my eyes as I looked up at him. “She just reminded me that relationships aren’t perfect, and if you want to be with someone, you have to make it work. It takes both people to put in the effort, though.”

It reminded me of my relationship with Jeremy and how no matter how hard I tried to fix us, we couldn’t be fixed because he didn’t care. He never put in the effort and I didn’t see that until now.

“I’m willing to put in the work,” he said, freeing me from my thoughts.

“Me too.” I smiled and squeezed his hand, which was still resting on my leg.

“Hey, have you heard anything from your sister about Art? Has she reached out to him yet?” he asked, changing the subject for me.

“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “She has a meeting with him on Monday, and then they’re meeting at Jeremy’s office on Tuesday to start mediation. I forgot to ask if it would be okay if I took a longer lunch that day to go with her?”

He let out a heavy sigh and squeezed my hand.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I pulled my head back and tilted it to the side to look at him.

“Why not? If it’s about the time I’m missing in the office, I’ll stay late to make up the hours.”

His face softened as he looked at me.

“Eva, it’s your ex-fiancé and your sister. There’s no way that you can attend the meeting without letting your personal feelings get in the way. That could completely jeopardize things for your sister. Art is an amazing attorney—the best of the best. But he can’t do his job if you create additional complications that he can’t fix. The last thing you want is for your ex to go after your sister in retaliation.”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the couch. He was right. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it.

“I didn’t think about it that way,” I admitted. “But she’s my baby sister, and she needs help. How can I not help her? I have to protect her.”

“You are helping her by staying out of it. She has the best lawyer in Manhattan. Let him do his job.”

“How am I supposed to just step back and walk away from this?” I asked, not expecting an actual answer to my rhetorical question.

“You’re not. You just have to be there for her in a different way,” he said softly. “Instead of going to the mediation with her, maybe you can take her to dinner when it’s over? You can still be there for her and support her. Just not in the same room as your ex or her husband. Don’t give them any more ammunition than they already have.”

“I know,” I said and sighed.

“It’s hard, I get it. I really do. But she will get through this. I promise.”

“If anything were to happen to her or Jackson...”

“It won’t,” he interrupted. “You just have to have faith and allow the system to do what it’s supposed to do.”

“I guess you’re right. It seems like there’s a lot of trust that we’re having to put into the system these days.”

I felt his body stiffen next to me and knew that I had hit a chord. I wasn’t trying to, but his situation with Cora wasn’t over,either. It also required us to trust the system and have faith that everything would work out as it was supposed to. Little did we know that our faith was about to be severely tested in the blink of an eye.

Twenty-Five

Ethan

I spent the first half of Friday morning on the phone with Brent as we worked out the last few details of the Watson Investments deal. I was more than somewhat relieved when he let us off the hook for dinner at Zenkichi tonight. Not that I didn’t want to spend time with him and get to know Chasity. I just wanted to spend that time alone with Eva. I had no idea if she really had plans with her sisters or whether they had been canceled. Either way, I was determined to find out.

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