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"How generous of you to forgive theao?"

"The night of the break-in," she said quietly "I realized there was much more between us, and I didn’t want to sacrifice it for soet to knoho you were, separate from your mother And I did Dalton, there were never any lies between us in bed, or with my emotions I planned to tell you"

His jaw clenched, and he spoke froritted teeth "You planned to tellabout my mother and the accident Stuff I never shared with anyone else, because I fucking trusted you Why didn’t you tell an talking, and then when I finished, I looked at you and you’d fallen asleep! So I pro, but you had to run out before we had a chance to talk"

"Convenient At least you’ve gotten the answers you need, Raven Is that your real nao by Raven"

"Good to know" His words were like jagged paper cuts against her bare skin She tried not to jerk back from his cold mockery "It’s kind of funny that I played coinally asked for the job to restore your bar I stayed late at closing and showed up at the gym It really was my fault, you know I had no idea this whole ti back and forth, tapping his finger to his er and sarcasm beneath your words The way you looked at me sometimes with hatred Studied my brothers and asked questions about my family Convinced athering"

"No, it wasn’t," she interrupted "I wanted to know inning to truly care about you, separate from our past Don’t you see we can move forward from this? We can even heal some of the rift between our families, and all these years of bitterness"

"Because you don’t blame my mother anymore?"

"Yes I don’t knoe’ll ever knohat truly happened, but I don’t believe she was using lad you don’t blame her anymore, Raven" He spun around and faced her His next words cah her "But I do blaht he was a coldhearted, manipulative bastard anted et it And I do, too" His blue eyes blazed like fire, but it wasn’t the warm kind that wrapped you in heat No, this was the type that destroyed and broke, leaving nothing in its wake but devastation "I think he was a liar, and I think you’re just like hi to hurt anyone else along the way to get what you want"

"You can’t believe that" She forced back the tears, strengthening her voice "You’re angry and feel betrayed, and I understand But I’ve never lied about s for you I know you feel the sa It was just fucking, after all I look at you now and feelnothing"

She shook her head "Don’t say that Don’t walk away from us"

"There was never an us, Raven, or Bella, or whoever you are There was just pretty lies, and great sex, and a et out of my house"

"Dalton--"

"Now"

He turned and walked out to the balcony, leaving her behind Slowly, she rose fro, she pushed through the raw pain and paused with her hand on the doorknob

He needed time With time, he’d calm down, they’d talk more, and they could fix this He was in shock and needed so that mantra to her heart, she left the roo

He worked on the deck at the Sullivans’ He steered clear of the office and ive constant excuses for why he wasn’t at dinner or around Morgan and Cal’s building site He stayed away fro to listen to her voice mails He buried himself early in his room with a bottle of Cal’s whiskey and drank himself into a stupor Then repeated the next day