Page 103 of King of Envy

“It’s not charity.” I kept my voice as controlled as possible so I didn’t snap at him.

“Then what is it? Payback for the money I lent you in college?” Jordan shook his head. “You wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t saved your life, would you?”

I fell silent.

I’d grown to enjoy his company over the years, and I did value him as a friend, but it was true. If he hadn’t saved my life, we would’ve never forged a friendship. Even if we had, I wouldn’t have put in the effort to keep it after college.

“I don’t mind that part. It is what it is,” he said. “But how much is our friendship really worth when you didn’t even tell me you were in love with Ayana all this time?”

I instinctively flinched. In love?

What I felt for her was fascination. Preoccupation. Obsession so deep I couldn’t breathe sometimes.

But love? I didn’t even know what that meant.

“We both kept secrets,” I growled. “You let me believe this was a love match, and you didn’t say a word about why you don’t do relationships. So who’s really tarnishing the value of our friendship?”

“I had reasons for that.” Jordan’s face flushed. “I didn’t figure out why I wasn’t…interested in sex and romance until two years ago. I just thought I hadn’t met the right person yet. And if my grandmother found out about my arrangement with Ayana, that would be the fucking end. You know she has eyes and ears everywhere.”

“Including with me?”

He looked away. “I couldn’t risk it. Ayana and I agreed not to tellanyone. Not our families. Not our best friends. There was too much at stake.”

I gritted my teeth, torn between the urge to shake him and sympathize with him.

I didn’t have time for either. The clock ticked toward the half hour, and we needed to end this once and for all.

“Take the money, Jordan,” I said.

His expression hardened. “No. I understand you have feelings for Ayana, but you can’t get everything you want. If you truly wanted her, you would’ve said something sooner. You wouldn’t have waited until the last minute.”

I was struck by the bitterness in his tone until it hit me.

When we first met, Jordan had the upper hand in almost every way. He’d been the rich, popular, good-looking legacy kid whose family had attended Thayer for generations. He sailed through school knowing he had the world at his fingertips after he graduated.

I’d been the outsider, the scholarship student who worked alone and took side jobs to pay for his expenses.

Fast forward thirteen years, and I was worth multitudes more than he was. I had more power, more status, and more influence. It must be a jarring turn of events for him.

Jordan had never displayed open resentment toward my success, but that didn’t mean it didn’t exist.

Once again, it was pride and ego. Even the best people in the world were susceptible to it.

“You’re right.” I swallowed past the knot in my throat. “But I’m asking you now. Don’t do this.” It was the closest I’d ever come to begging.

I had other options. I could tell his grandmother about the arrangement or lock him in this room and steal Ayana away. I couldforcehim to do what I wanted at gunpoint.

But I would never exercise those options. Not with him. There were some lines even I wouldn’t cross.

Jordan’s throat bobbed. “It’s too late,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t ask what that meant for my best man role or our friendship. He simply left.

The door shut behind him. The minute hand swept past the half hour mark, and its soft tick was what sent me over the edge.

I swept my arm across a table of glasses in rage and watched them crash to the floor. The explosive shatter did nothing to alleviate the burn in my chest.

I’d tried to reason with Jordan, but I couldn’t watch Ayana marry someone else.

---