Masters and Seb are beside me, staying silent. What is there to say?
I’ve fucked it. I’ve completely fucked it.
“She’ll come around.” Masters sips his beer.
“I don’t think she will,” Seb mutters. “Have you seen the papers today? This scandal is fucking everywhere.”
“You’re not helping, Seb!” Masters snaps. “Try calling her again.”
I pass my phone to him. He dials Charlotte’s number and, once again, it goes straight through to voicemail. Her phone has been turned off since dinner last night. She hasn’t been back to our apartment. If I try to drive to Nottingham, they won’t let me see her, anyway.
I’ll wait here in London for her to come home.
Please come home.
“I don’t understand how you didn’t know this.” Masters frowns. “How do you fuck a married woman and never find out who she was married to?”
“It’s not something I wanted to know, all right? Fuck.”
Seb smirks and stares down at the table.
“What?” I say deadpan.
“You do have to admit, it is a little bit funny. What are the chances?”
“It’s not funny, Sebastian, you fucking idiot. What will be funny is when I rearrange your ugly face,” I growl.
Masters chuckles. “Now, that will be funny. I’d pay good money to watch you do that.”
A text comes in from Bree.
Spence,
I can’t get a hold of her.
I’ll keep trying.
Bree
x
I drag my hand down my face in despair.
“She’s not seeing anyone or taking any calls. Beth called me this morning, and Charlotte won’t even see her. I don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to fix this when she won’t even speak to me.”
We all fall silent.
“She’ll come home.” Masters sighs. “She’s just in shock.”
“Join the fucking club,” Seb grumbles. “I’m in shock, too.”
I glare at him. “I swear to fucking God, your face is so punch-able right now, I can’t even stand it.”
The both laugh at me.
“Can you two just fuck off and leave me alone?”
“Nope,” Masters answers without hesitation. “We’ve been through tougher times than this, and we always stick together.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. A memory of Charlotte’s face when she realised I’d slept with Penelope takes over, and my heart hurts.
I can’t believe I slept with Penelope.
What have I done?
Charlotte
Thirty-seven hours since he held me.
Thirty-seven hours since I had my heart completely ripped from my chest.
I’m in my bed, staring at a wall.
I can’t drink, I can’t eat, I can’t think.
I wish I couldn’t feel…
I keep seeing Spencer’s face as they dragged him away from me—the fear in his eyes.
He knew…he knew then, in that moment, what our future was.
We aren’t a love story. We’re a tragedy.
Tears roll down my face. The hysterical tears are over, replaced with numbness—a cold, dead feeling now taking over my heart.
I’m an empty vessel, broken beyond repair.
Everything I thought I knew was a lie. The life I planned with him is over.
Love with him will never be the same.
The man I fell in love with doesn’t exist.
In his place there’s a homewrecker, a man who I despise, and everything he stands for.
A man with different morals than me, and one I couldn’t possibly be in love with.
The pain is deep, real, and I feel like I’m grieving someone’s death all over again.
It hurts.
I hear a car horn in the distance.
Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeep.
What’s that?
Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeep.
I hear a door bang, and then footsteps as someone runs past my house down the gravel road.
What on earth is going on out there?
I drag myself to the window and peer through the sheer curtains only to see Spencer’s car outside the gates. He’s standing next to it, pushing on the horn through his open door.
Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeep. “Charlotte!” he yells. “Come out here.” Beep, beep. “CHARLOTTE!” he screams.
I wince and feel more tears fall as I watch him. He’s frantic.
“Angel, please,” he begs. “I promise you, I didn’t know.”
I slap my hands over my ears. “Stop it,” I whisper. “Leave me alone.”
“Charlotte?” I turn and see Edward. I crash to his chest as he wraps me in his safe arms. “It’s okay, Lottie, they’re taking him away now.”
I howl against his chest; this pain unbearable.
The worst thing is, I know that Spencer will be hurting just as much as I am.
But what’s done is done.
He can’t change the past, and this will never be something I’ll be able to live with.
He slept with my brother’s wife. Penelope.
I taste bile, imagining him in William’s bed with William’s wife, and I cry harder and harder until I can’t breathe. I can’t see him.
I don’t ever want to see him again.
There is nothing he can say that will take away what he’s done or the hurt he’s caused my beloved brother.
A new rush of pain seeps through another layer in my heart.
“Spencer,” I cry. “My love. Why?” I howl. “Why did he do this, Edward, why?”
“Shh.”
I hear the car horn again and Spencer screams my name. “Charlotte!”
“Make him go away,” I cry.
“They’re taking him now. Dad is at the police station taking out a restraining order against him as we speak. He won’t be able to come here at all without being arrested soon.”
The thought that he can’t legally come here anymore breaks my heart even further, and I cry uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry I let this happen,” Edward whispers against my hair. “This is all my fault.”
“Charlotte!” Spencer screams again, and I slap my hands over my ears.
“Make it stop, Edward, make it stop.”
“Charlotte, please… I love you,” Spencer yells, his voice breaking. “I love you.”
The guards begin to shout, and then there’s a commotion. I know that Spencer is struggling with them to try to get to me.
I pull out of Edward’s arms and roll into a ball on my bed, holding my hands over my ears as I cry hysterically.
Make.
The.
Pain.
Stop.
Spencer
I stare at my computer, looking at pictures of myself outside the restaurant.
But all I see is Charlotte’s hurt face.
Every tabloid, every magazine, everyone knows I slept with Penelope—Charlotte’s brother’s wife. Her damn sister-in-law.
To make it worse, someone even filmed what Penelope was saying in the restaurant. It’s been played over and over and over.
Everywhere.
It’s not even true.
Did I sleep with her? Yes.
Did I know she was married? No.
I had no idea what her real name was. I hooked up with her a few times and she told me she was divorced. I saw her at a club one night and we went back to her house.
What I thought was her house, anyway.
Then a crazed husband burst in on us midway through sex, and he completely lost his shit. I picked up my clothes and ran. I never saw her again.
I still remember the devastation on his face when he caught us. It’s something I have thought of often over the years.
It’s the kind of thing you never forget.
There was no way in hell I would have been there if I’d have known the truth. I wouldn’t knowingly sleep with a married woman unless she was in an open relationship. I know what Seb went through. I would never inflict that pain on someone else.
My chest constricts as I remember the only person that matters in this story.
Charlotte. My beautiful Charlotte.
I’ve lost her.
She won’t answer my calls, she’s not opening my texts. She won’t see me.
She’s heartbroken, and who can blame her?
I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say. How do I salvage this?
A little voice from deep inside my mind tells me that it’s impossible.
I click out of the story on my screen and run my hands through my hair in disgust.
I’m sick to my stomach.
This is God punishing me. I’m being punished for being promiscuous before I met her.
My love… gone.
I hear my office door open and I look up and see a familiar face. Unable to help it, tears of relief fill my eyes and I stand quickly.