The Wedding Party Collection. Кейт Хьюит
Читать онлайн книгу.
didn’t you tell me then?’
‘I didn’t want to worry you. I wanted to protect you. I also thought that you’d most likely wake up the next morning and remember everything.’
‘You lied to me.’
Trig nodded.
‘I trusted you.’
‘You still can.’
‘How? You let me make a fool of myself with you! You encouraged it.’
‘Is that what you think?’
‘What else am I supposed to think?’ She wrenched the rings off her finger and they sat there in her palm, shining dully. ‘You let me believe in these.’
‘You said you wanted them.’
‘I was delusional. How could you let me believe in something that wasn’t real?’
‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘I was there. It was exactly like that.’ The rings sat in her hand, softly gleaming. All she had to do was tilt her hand and they’d fall to the ground, but he wrapped his big hand around hers and gently closed her fingers over the rings.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘You should be.’ She wrenched her hand away. ‘I trusted you. I bedded you. And you let me!’
‘You made it difficult for me not to.’
‘Oh, so it’s my fault.’
‘No. The fault’s all mine.’ He ran his hand over his face. ‘I know I should have put you on a plane back to Australia the minute the doctor declared you fit to fly. I didn’t. I brought you here instead in the hope that you could have a moment with your brother and see for yourself that he was okay. It’s why you came to Turkey. It’s the only reason you came here. I know that some of the decisions I’ve made over these past few days haven’t been good ones, but I made that decision for you. I knew it would mean another night with you, but I honestly thought I could handle it.’
‘Handle me.’
‘I should have known better.’ Trig’s eyes beseeched her to listen. ‘It wasn’t all lies, Lena. I want that kind of relationship with you. My ring on your finger. You taking life in both hands and racing speedboats because it excites you and because you can. The farmhouse on the banks of the lazy river. The whole damn fantasy.’
‘Maybe you do.’ Lena’s eyes began to fill with tears again. ‘Doesn’t give you the right to just reach out and take it.’
‘Or we could dial it back a notch or two and you could agree to go out with me.’
She laughed at that. A bubbling, stumbling hiccough at his audacity. ‘I trusted you.’
‘You still can.’
‘No.’ She took his hand in hers and tipped the rings into his palm. She carefully closed his fingers around them and then withdrew from him altogether. She brought her knees to her chest and put her head to her knees, blocking out the world around them but the pain of betrayal stayed with her. ‘I can’t.’
* * *
On the subject of Lena going to the hospital, Trig stood unmoveable. Upon hearing of her recent concussion, the medical staff decided to monitor her overnight. Trig brought in clothes and toiletries. He called her family and gave them the happenings of the day. He changed their flights and had the Istanbul doctor forward her medical records on to this new hospital. He took control. Quietly. Efficiently. He didn’t pretend to be her husband.
‘I’m feeling okay,’ Lena told him when the nurse came in to tell him that visiting hours were over and that Lena needed her rest. ‘I honestly think I’m fine now. He’s leaving.
‘No lie. I’m feeling okay,’ Lena repeated as the nurse withdrew from the room. Tension hung there between them, a tension built on all the things they hadn’t said these past few hours. He’d helped her find Jared, and that was worth something. But he’d betrayed her trust too, and that hurt; God, it hurt. A nameless stranger had put a spray of bullets in her gut and almost destroyed her. This man had put a bullet straight through her heart.
‘I want to thank you for today,’ she began. ‘Jared’s alive and I know that now. I’ve seen him and he’s seen me. Whatever he’s doing... I can’t stop him from doing it. He wants to save the world, one bad guy at a time, and that’s a noble ambition. It’s just not my ambition any more. Mine are smaller now. Right now I just want to get through the day without falling apart emotionally. I always have had an emo streak.’
‘You’re doing fine,’ he said gruffly.
‘No. I’m not. I need you to not be here any more. I need you to hear what I’m saying. You should go home.’
When visiting hours came around the next morning, Poppy was there for her.
And Trig was not.
Five days later, Lena was back at Damon’s beach house by the sea and Poppy—who’d escorted her there—had headed back to Darwin and the delicious Sebastian who’d claimed Poppy’s heart. Poppy hadn’t pried, when it came to what had happened between Lena and Trig in Turkey. Poppy had been relieved to know that Jared was alive, and more relieved still when the doctor had discharged Lena and given her the all-clear to travel. Jared was busy doing whatever it was he was doing, and that was his idiot decision and no one else’s, as far as Poppy was concerned.
‘Now will you let it go and concentrate on living your life?’ Poppy had said as they’d packed their bags for home. ‘Because it’s right there in front of you and it’s ready when you are.’
Five days since Lena had told Trig to go.
And the loneliness and sense of wrong ate away at her soul.
She had everything she needed here at Damon’s house. Comfort and space and a gorgeous indoor pool. So many pools in her life, only now she remembered why. The countless hours of water-based rehab. The agonising stretches as she regained the use of her left leg, one millimetre at a time, refusing to admit defeat. Damon had practically given over this house to her—no wonder she’d thought of it as hers. Hers and Trig’s, because he’d spent almost as much time here as she had these past nineteen months. Babysitting her, she’d always thought. Encouraging her with his silence when others had told her to stop. Adding his strength of will to hers. Sometimes he’d even gone away when she’d yelled at him to leave her alone, but he’d never stayed gone for long. It wasn’t his way. This time, though...
All bets were off.
Her mobile rang and Lena found it on the little table beside Damon’s front door and looked at the screen in sudden trepidation, swiftly followed by a stab of disappointment. Not Trig. Ruby. Lena tapped the screen to answer the call and stood a little straighter because Ruby had that effect on people.
‘I hear congratulations are in order,’ she said lightly, for she hadn’t yet congratulated Ruby on her pregnancy, and that was an oversight she wanted to fix. ‘Congratulations.’
‘Thank you. I told Damon I wanted to tell you in person but boys will be boys. Apparently he and Trig had nothing else to talk about on the phone the other day besides the fact that Trig was setting up a meeting with your brother and that somewhere along the line he’d fake married you. Which is, in fact, why I’m calling you. I hear you’re still at odds with my second favourite man on the planet.’
‘Ruby, are you cross examining me?’
‘Would you like me to rephrase the question? What’s going on, Lena? It’s not like you to hold a grudge.’
‘He let me think that we were on our honeymoon, Ruby. He lied to