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"That was entirely your own fault" I searched for the diary I wanted and once finding it, found the entry easily since it was a night I would not likely ever forget, "Nine months before Joss showed up… it’s a perfect exa entirely your own fault"

Sunday, October 23rd That’s it I give up I’m humiliated Confused and humiliated And hurt God… hurt doesn’t even cover it… I was supposed to be spending irls fro else but our degrees Instead, I was in a taxi heading to Adae I could have walked there, but I felt a sense of urgency to get there and make sure he was okay

And I really needed to thank hi my back, like he always had ood one That was putting it ain But this time it orse than ever For the last fiveFor the last five ow for a recruitency I’d only just discovered that in actuality he was a corporate spy for a coh This property developer was so desperate to outbid Braden on a piece of coveted land down by Coet close to et close to Braden, to unearth Braden’s bid and offer more money for the land

I wasn’t in love with Rich but I’d let the sleazeball into iven him a piece of me I don’t think I’d ever felt so completely stupid inood intuition when it came to people, that I let a-holes into ht

I could close down, refuse to let people close, be smarter, more selective… but that wasn’tRich win So I refused to change and there was a tiny sense of victory in that, at least

It still stung like a , couldn’t take some kind of retribution So when Braden turned up at eous property on Dublin Street that he’d renovated and then allowed me to stay in rent-free -- to tell ht before, I’d held h, Braden had had to haul Adam off of Rich and take him home to calm him down and ice his knuckles Apparently, Adam had let the whole world kno he felt about anyone betraying me He didn’t like it And when he didn’t like it, he’d acquaint your face with his dislike

As soon as Braden left I buzzed aroundwhat I should do

Should I call Adao to his place and thank hi violence to make a point? No, that last one definitely wouldn’t ith hih he could be inti and had warned off a nuer, this was the first tiotten physical with soo after Rich Adam had exploded and stormed out of my mum and Clark’s house when Braden relayed the news to them all Braden had told theht with tears as I had to hear it a second time

After Braden’s departure, I finally irls

I juht, and threw on a long skirt with a loaistband, s, and a wooly turtleneck with a cropped hem I wanted to be casual, of course, but whenever I knew I’d be seeing Adam, I liked to reure Not that it made any real impact Despite evidence that he checked me out sometimes, Adam had been carefully platonic in our interactions since our lip brush three years ago I had dated three guys in a bid to get over hiuys just paled in comparison to him and the relationships fizzled out

With a mind to the cold, I’d thrown on a short wool jacket over ed down a taxi outsideup to Adahtover It was a Saturday night He ht have coht The last tio, and I’d walked in on hiirl called Vicky

Not only was I horrified once more to play witness to one of his sexual interludes, but I’d been shocked to realize that he and my brother shared women Not at the same time, thank God I knew they shared (and I didn’t want to know if it was a reoccurring thing) because Braden had been seeing Vicky for three months In an effort to soothe my severely bruised romantic notions, Adam had explained Braden and Vicky were really casual and when Vicky had said she fancied Adam, Braden had mentioned it to his friend and Adam had--la, la, la, la, la, la, la! I didn’t hear the rest of the explanation because I had indeed stuck ers childishly in my ears and "la, la-ed" at him

Sex was not casual to me Not only was I annoyed that my brother, who had once been a secret roa it I couldn’t even describe how angry I was at Vicky

After asking the cab driver to wait a second, I pulled out reeted me, his rich voice filled with concern He was clearly still worried about hoas coping with Rich’s treachery

"Hullo," I replied quietly, letting the war his voice fill my chest "I’m downstairs Are you okay forup, paid the taxi driver and hopped out,as I hurried to the entrance doors just as Adaan to sweat as the lift tookalone with Adaotten worse over the last few years Every time was like a first date, and yet I knew him better than I knew practically anyone

When the lift doors openedin his doorway across the hall, his arainst the doorjamb He wore a plain white T-shirt and a pair of old jeans, his feet bare, his hair mussed, and he needed a shave