Page 74 of No Turning Back
“I didn’t knock her up.” The words shoot out fast, defensive. “I mean, she is knocked up, but it’s not mine.”
Quinn laughs, but there’s no humour in it. “Oh yeah? And how the hell do you know that?”
“She’s seven months. Not possible.”
Her arms fold tight across her chest again. “You sure?”
“Jesus, Quinn,” I start, but the rest dies in my throat. Because yeah. I am sure. And yet.
I did.
I did cheat.
“I… okay. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t some long-term affair, no sneaking around.” My voice cracks. “It happened once. Just once. And I regretted it immediately after.”
“Yet you didn’t tell me,” she fires back.
“Because I was scared that,” I swallow, looking anywhere but her. “That we’d end up here.”
She looks away too, but not fast enough to hide the way her mouth trembles. When she finally speaks, it’s barely more than a whisper. “Why?”
The word cuts deeper than her shouting ever could.
“Why was she worth throwing our marriage away?”
I take a step closer, but she retreats, arms crossing so I can’t touch her. My throat burns as I try telling her it wasn’t some deep secret, that I was just selfish need, that my dad finally made me see it, but I don’t think I succeed, because the next words out of her mouth are like a blade.
“You fucked her because you were horny.” She says the wordhornylike it’s a joke.
I shrug, helpless. “Yeah.”
At first, Quinn laughs, short, sharp, bitter. Then it keeps going, bubbling up too loud, too broken, until it’s this hysterical, jagged sound that makes my chest cave in.
“You, okay?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
She taps her knee, grounding herself. “God. I don’t even know what I wanted to hear. Butthat?” She shakes her head, a disbelieving smile twisting her mouth. “You being horny? That never even crossed my mind.”
A few small chuckles escape her, brittle and sharp. “Well,” she says finally, voice flat. “Thanks for telling me. And for finally being a decent fucking human and signing the papers.”
Quinn glances around the room, at the boxes, the memories, the ghosts. Her jaw sets hard. “I don’t want anything from this house. For all I care, you can burn the whole damn thing.”
And with like that, she turns and walks out.
Just as quick as she came.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Quinn
“Horny.” The word tastes like poison in my mouth. “Horny. He was fucking horny.”
Kate glances at me, eyes flicking between the road and my face as she drives.
“I mean-” I throw my hands up, voice climbing, “I was ready foranything else.That he fell in love with her, that his mom somehow pushed him into her, hell, that aliens abducted him and scrambled his brain. Buthorny?”
Kate snorts. “I mean… he’s a man, Quinn.”
I stare at her like she just told me the earth is flat. “So men can just, what? Throw away their marriage vows because they haven’t gotten laid in a month? A month, by the way, thathe causedby leaving after promising he wouldn’t?”
