Page 51 of Noctis

“Maybe you should have thought about that before you cheated on me. I gave you time to find somewhere else to stay. I was stuck in rehab, remember? The place you put me. I suppose your insistence on choosing the most isolated facility you could find makes perfect sense now. You probably searched for the rehabilitation equivalent of Alcatraz. What happened? Didn’t one exist? Did you have to settle for a forest instead of shark-infested waters?

“I took you to rehab because you needed to sort yourself out.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t absolve you of handling it in completely the wrong way, and it certainly doesn’t make changing the locks while I was gone okay.” I took a deep breath and forced myself to think rationally. “Go and stay with Remy.”

Tyler’s eyes narrowed. “Very funny.”

I frowned. “I’m missing the joke. What? He’s good enough to fuck, but not good enough to stay with?”

“Remy won’t speak to me, which I’m sure was your intention when you called him.”

“It wasn’t.” That wasn’t a lie.

“Whatever you said to him worked.”

“I didn’t say anything beyond telling him how hurt I was and asking how long it had been going on.” I could tell from Tyler’s expression that he didn’t believe me. “I guess he couldn’t handle the guilt once I knew about your dirty secret.”

I rattled the door again, but the chain held firm. “Listen, you’ve made your point, but let’s not take this any further. Open the door, and I’ll pay for you to stay in a hotel for a few days.”

“A few days?”

Tyler said it like I’d offered him a cardboard box under a bridge.

“Fine. A week. That should give you plenty of time to find somewhere.”

He snorted. “I used to think it was cute that you had no idea how things worked in the real world. But then, why would you? Poor little rich boy has never had to rent anything in his life.”

“Two weeks.” All that mattered was getting him out of my house, so I refused to rise to the provocation.

He jerked his chin toward my foot, which remained wedged in the door. “I need to close it before I can take the chain off.”

I reluctantly withdrew my foot.

The door closed.

And remained that way.

The bastard had tricked me.

I hammered on the wood with my fist, my returning anger doing the talking for me. “Open the fucking door. You can’t honestly think you’ll get away with this.”

“Go away, Rowan.”

“Go away?” Disbelief made my voice shrill. “You can’t be fucking serious. I’m calling the police. Let’s see what they have to say about you trespassing.”

“Call them.”

“I’m not joking.”

When silence followed, I reached for my phone. It was the first time I’d switched it on since the clinic confiscated it. The screen immediately filled with messages and missed calls notifications, but I ignored them all and followed through on my threat.

“Police,” I announced loudly enough for Tyler to hear. Once the call connected, I explained the situation as succinctly as possible to PC Hewitt.

“Is he there now?” he asked.

“Yes. And he’s refusing to let me in.”

“Has he threatened or assaulted you?”