Page 53 of Cruel Secrets

“Because I’m holding my breath and waiting for you to leave again.”

It hits like a ton of bricks straight to the chest.

I take a step back, not sure what to say to her right now.

After all this time, she still wants to focus on the fact that I left. She doesn’t seem to care that she lied to me for a year about who she was.

“You pushed me away every single time I asked about your family,” I say, trying to keep my tone as even as possible despite feeling like I want to explode. “You didn’t want to tell me a single thing about yourself, and I was so in love with you that I didn’t care even though I know I should have.”

Gia’s eyes water. “I loved you too. How was I supposed to tell you the truth when I knew you would act like this?”

“You didn’t!” I snap, voice rising before I lock eyes with Bianca and make a funny face, sticking out my tongue and crossing my eyes.

She laughs with delight, banging her hands on the side of the swing.

I laugh, but the amusement dies when I look back at Gia. “You did a fine job of ruining everything we had just because you didn’t want to tell me who your brother was. I didn’t push you on it either. I just wanted to know that the woman I wanted to marry was someone who wanted me in her life.”

Her step back is staggering. It feels like there’s an entire ocean between us as we stare at each other, breath coming out in white clouds to fill the void.

She blinks back tears. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“Of course you didn’t, because every time I brought up something deeper with you, it was like you couldn’t get away from me fast enough. You didn’t want anything to do with me and I wasn’t going to fight you on that. Not when you finally told me who you were after a year of pushing me away.”

“Royce.”

“No, Gia. Just don’t, okay? I don’t want to hear how you try to justify this again because the truth is that if you had told me who you were back then, I wouldn’t have cared. You were the only person I wanted, and you fucked me over.”

“Fuck!” Bianca shouts, her shrill voice slicing through the tension.

Gia’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head. “You just taught her how to swear.”

I smirk and kiss Bianca’s cheek when she swings toward me again before I push her away. “A cursing prodigy.”

“No.” Gia sighs and tucks her hands into her pockets. “You’re right about everything. I was scared of losing you. I thought it would be easier to just never tell you about Noah and the rest of my dad’s side of the family. I thought that if you did find out one day, I would have a good excuse for hiding it.”

“Why did you?”

It’s the question I’ve been terrified to ask since the day I found out.

I had prepared myself back then to hear that she couldn’t trust me or that she was never going to picture a life with me. That she thought I wasn’t worth the truth because I lived a life enforcing what Aiden said.

Gia sniffles a little. “I just wanted one person in my life to not have their opinions on me shaped by my brother and who he is. You were sweet and you made sense, and I didn’t want to ruin that.”

“And look where it got us.”

“If I could go back in time and change it, I would. I would’ve told you who I was—probably after the sixth date—and then we could’ve figured it out.”

I can’t help the way the corner of my mouth twitches. “The sixth date, huh?”

She shrugs, a small smile lighting up her face. “I thought the fifth might be too soon, but the seventh sounds like I’m asking for bad luck.”

Snorting, I shake my head. “We’re a fucking mess.”

“Yeah.” She nods to Bianca, love radiating from her every pore. “But we made a cute kid together.”

“We did do that.” I look down at her, trying to figure out exactly where we stand with each other. “I think it’s time we call a truce. Let go of the past, work on being friends for the sake of our kid. I don’t want the only version of us she knows to be the one where we’re fighting all the time.”

She nudges me with her elbow. “We could even be best friends.”

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