Page 207 of Carnal Games

“This isn’t like you.”

His jaw clenches as he coldly taunts, “I gave you an out before we got engaged, Iris. In fact, I did it several times. Why didn’t you say no then?”

“I wish I did, but the situation was different then.”

“What changed?”

“I met your brother,” I answer truthfully.

He huffs, his striking features pulling taut. “Let’s say we announce the engagement is off. How are you planning to explain it to our friends and family?”

“We’ll tell them we changed our minds, or we’ll tell them… the truth.”

“The truth?” He laughs humorlessly at my suggestion. “Do you think yourdaducan handle it?”

The low blow—while true—makes me flinch. Tears form in the corners of my eyes, and my chin wobbles as I hold back the sob. “Look, I get you’re upset, but I’m not trying to hurt you. I can’t be with you anymore, even if it’s a sham.”

“Because you have a crush on my brother?”

“Because I love him!”

He sucks in a sharp breath, the iciness in his eyes turning into impenetrable steel.

I open my mouth to tell him how long I’ve had feelings for his older brother, when his nasty jab lacerates my skin.

“He won’t love you back once he learns the truth, Iris.”

“You’re wrong.” I shake my head, defending Kian. “He understands that our relationship isn’t real. I told him last night.”

“Not the truth I’m talking about.”

“What else is there?”

“I’m talking about you stalking and obsessing over him for the last three years.”

The earth beneath me tilts as his sentence reverberates around the four walls.

I stumble back, like I’ve been hit by a semi.

No. No. No.

I shake my head, as if it’ll change my reality.

Nathan… can’t know. It’s impossible.

“He was your crush that you kept coming back to see at the park.” Leaning his hip against the table behind him, he crosses his arms and pins me with a calculating and arrogant look in his eyes. “The reason you befriended me. It was for a chance to be closer to him that you agreed to be my fake girlfriend.”

Horror paralyses me to the spot.

My chest compresses, like someone is drowning me underwater. A ringing starts in my ears as I try to process, but I keep failing. “I… I don’t.”

“No point in denying,” he tsks. “I’m not mad or accusing you of using me. I knew what I was getting myself into.”

“What?” I choke out, my vision tunnelling. “You knew? How?”

“I saw you sitting under that tree and watching him before I ever approached you. Like clockwork, you would show up and gaze at him like he hung the moon until he left.”

Thrust into an alternate dimension, I see the past events in a tragic new light.

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