47. That night
Rowan
“What the hell happened to you?” Gabe asks looking at the ice pack that was plastered to
my face.
“Ethan” I just grunt. Not in the mood to deal with my brother.
Fuck! I still can’t believe that I got into a fight with the fucking idiot. I was just so pissed
and I let
his words get to me.
“The cop?” He asks curiously. “Ava’s new man?”
At that I blow. I take the ice pack and throw it against the wall.
“He’s not her fucking man” I snap standing up.
My emotions were raw and close to the surface. I still don’t understand why Ava can’t see
that the
fucker is a fraud.
I haven’t been able to get anything deeper about him. The reports paint him as an okay
guy.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but my gut tell me otherwise. There was just something about
him
that rubbed me wrong. Something that he was hiding. My gut has never been wrong
before.
“From what I hear, he is…what happened?”
I take a deep breath, trying to cool down the fire burning inside me.
“We were helping Ava move furniture into her new house and he told me to back off. Said
that she
was his and he wasn’t going to allow me to ruin things” I admit finally.
Gabe stares at me like he can’t believe what I just said. Like I was trying to figure out what
the
hell was wrong with me.
“Seriously? That’s what made you get into a fight with him”
“Yes!”
He sighs before sitting down. “In case you haven’t noticed, she’s no longer your wife and
given that
he is dating her, he has every reason to ask you to back off. Isn’t that the same thing you
asked of
Ava when you started dating Emma?”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtI fist my hand in frustration. Why is it that no one saw what I saw. No one realized the
truth? How
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“It’s not about that” I seethed. “There is just something about the man that isn’t fucking
right. Why
can none of you see that?”
I start pacing my home office. My fury burning so close to the surface. I was almost losing
it. First I hear that Emma threatened Noah and that Travis did nothing. Then I had to watch
while Ethan
and Ava made googly eyes at each other.
She was so taken by him. So enthralled that she couldn’t see a fucking thing. What the
hell was wrong with her? She’s the most cautious person I know, yet she let him into her
life without even
question anything.
“What are you talking about?” he asks giving me his whole attention.
I don’t stop pacing. I just couldn’t sit down with all the fucking emotions inside me.
“I don’t know how to fucking explain it, but there is just something I don’t like about him.
Something doesn’t feel right with him”
It doesn’t make any fucking sense, but I can’t ignore the feeling. That’s why I have my P.I
investigating him.
Gabe says nothing for a while and when he does, I feel like punching the crap out of him.
“Could it be that you’re jealous of him?”
“The fuck I am” I bellow. “Why the hell would I be jealous of him? I don’t have any fucking
feelings
for Ava, remember?”
What he was saying was absurd. I could never be jealous when it comes to Ava. She is my
son’s
mother and I’m looking after him. That’s all.
“Look, you were married to her for nine fucking years, it’s hard to stay with someone for
that long
and not develop any feelings towards them. Especially someone who isn’t truly evil”
I stare at him in shock, before shaking my head. “There’s no fucking way that I developed
feelings
for her. I stayed married to her because of Noah. My heart always belonged to Emma and
you
know that. That’s the reason I couldn’t develop any feelings for her”
He had completely lost his fucking mind. It’s not unusual for people to stay married even
though
they don’t love each other. Nine years couldn’t change the fact that I wasn’t Ava biggest
fan.
Especially not after the stunt she pulled to get me to sleep with her. 2
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“Then explain to me why you feel so strongly about her dating Ethan?” he insists.
“I already fucking told you! I wouldn’t have cared if she dated any other man, but
something is just
fishy with that cop”
We were going round in circles and it was only making me more pissed. I thought at least
he
would understand but looks like he doesn’t. Instead he has this stupid notion that I’m
angry
because I have feelings for Ava and that I’m jealous.
“I’ll be the first to admit that what Ava did nine years ago was wrong. We treated her
horribly for it, but what if she wasn’t lying when she said she was drunk? What if she was
telling the truth?”
“That’s impossible”
“Is it? We all wanted you with Emma. We’ll except for Ava. After what happened, we
wanted
someone to blame. It was easier to blame the girl who had been obsessed with you for
years than
to accept that both of you had made a mistake” (3)
Looking at him quietly, I stand frozen. What the fuck had gotten into him?
I watch as he takes out his phone and dials a phone number.
“What are you doing?” I question him suspiciously.
“Something we should have done a long time…I’m finding out the truth about that night”
he says.
We wait a bit and then someone answers the phone. I stare at him numbly as he ask the
person to
get him the video footage from the bar and the hotel. He then commands him to get it
within an
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmhour.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve by digging this shit up” I tell him after he
hangs up
the phone.
It was all in the past. We all knew what happened, so what the hell was digging up the
past going
to achieve?
“A part from knowing the truth? Well, it will clear things for you. Like I said, I believe you
feel something for Ava and you have felt it for a long time. Your bitterness at what you
believe is her
betrayal is what keeps you from admitting the truth” he looks at me straight in the eyes.
His grey eyes which are similar to mine, challenging me to argue with him.
I turn on my heels and take a seat. I refuse to let him see how bothered I am by all this.
I’m still
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his shady character led to him insisting that I was blocking my feelings for Ava
We don’t speak. I was now pissed at him too, but he didn’t seem to notice or care because
he was
busy doing something on his phone.
I don’t know how long we sat in my office when his phone pinged
I watch him closely as his face turns to shock them mortification. My curiosity gets the
better of
1. me. I now want to see what’s gotten him so disturbed.
“Gabe?” I cautiously call his name.
He looks up. His eyes haunted as he silently gives me his phone. I take it with shaky
hands,
knowing I won’t like what I see.
Slowly, I look down at his phone. I watch as everything unfolds. I watch as the truth I held
on for
so long crumbles. I watch as the real events of that night are revealed.
Cursing, I stand up. Unable to bear the impact of what that video meant.
Ava had been telling the truth the whole time. We were both drunk, meaning for the past
nine
years she was blamed and punished for something that wasn’t her fault.
“Fuck!” I shout, unable to contain the crushing weight inside me.