Page 263 of Double or Nothing

“I couldn’t even breathe. You weren’t there.”

I should stop pushing him. Stop hurting him. But I can’t.

I’m far too fucking angry for that.

“You couldn’t even breathe? She ran after you. She pulled you into a cupboard and told you the truth. She asked you what to do.”

“I know.”

“She gave you the opportunity you’ve wanted for years.”

“I know, Jack!”

“And you still walked away.”

His eyes close.

“Yes.”

The broken sound of his admission takes the force from my anger.

Bryce knows what he did. He’ll have every second preserved in perfect detail, ready to punish him whenever the room grows quiet.

Still, I see Alice standing alone after he left. Her future like a prison because the person she trusted enough to run after gave her nothing to hold on to.

“Was she going to do it anyway?” I ask. “Take off the ring and sling it right back in his face?”

“No. She was still wearing it when I left.”

The answer catches beneath my ribs.

“That’s just fucking great, isn’t it? Excellent.”

“It doesn’t mean she wants him.”

“It means she’s engaged to him.”

Bryce chokes as he tries to get his words out.

“I know.”

My anger surges again.

At Christopher. At William Parker. At every pretentious prat who applauded while Alice stood trapped inside somebody else’s plan.

At myself, because I let her leave this morning without giving her anything more solid than a suitcase on loan.

“You had a chance outside the lift,” I say. “Then another in that fucking cupboard.”

“I know.”

“She offered to end it. To say she’d changed her mind.”

“I know what happened, Jack! You don’t have to keep rubbing it in my face.”

“And somehow you still came here without her.” I stare him out. “Now that’s the biggest shocker of all. You left her in a fucking broom cupboard, with a psycho’s engagement ring on her fucking finger. What the fuck were you thinking?”

Bryce grabs the front of my shirt.