The Ending I Want

“The night before her funeral, I was going through her things. I guess…I was missing her. Her phone was in her bag. She’d left it in her room. The battery was dead, so I plugged in the charger. There was a bunch of text messages. Some were from friends after she’d died, just saying how much they missed her. I scrolled back to see if there were any from before she died.

“There were two texts sent before she died while she must have been out skiing. One was from me, saying that I’d call her when I woke up. The other was from Jeremy. It wasn’t odd to me, that they texted, as they were friends, just like she was with Cam and Eddie, too. But this text was different. It said for her to call him when she was back. His dick was hard because he was thinking about her. He missed fucking her.

“I opened the message and then started reading back through their string of messages. There was…a lot of things said, and there were pictures.”

I close my eyes, feeling his pain like it’s my own.

“I got obsessed with finding out how long it had been going on. I knew, if I asked Jeremy, he’d just fucking lie. He’d been fucking my fiancée and lying to me about that, so I wasn’t going to believe shit he might have to say. So, I got into her emails. There was more in there. She had a secret folder, but I found it. And there it all was. Emails between them, dating back years. I read each and every email. They’d started sleeping together not long after she and I started dating. From what the emails said, he wouldn’t give her what I would. A few times, they’d called it off. But then, it would start back up again.

“By the time I was done reading the emails, it was morning, and I had to go to her funeral. So, I got showered and dressed. I climbed into the funeral car, sat next to her parents, and rode to the church. And I stood there at the funeral, staring at her coffin, and when the time came, I stood up and read my eulogy. All the while, I knew what she’d done to me. How she’d lied and betrayed me for all those years.

“And he was there. Sitting in the pew, acting the part of the supportive and grieving friend. I couldn’t look at him. If I had, I’d have lost it, and I didn’t want to do that to her parents. They’d always been good to me.

“And when her funeral was over, I had to go back to her parents’ house for the wake. And I was so fucking ready for it to be over. But I went because, if I didn’t, I knew it would raise questions. So, I drank and talked to people and avoided Jeremy. Then, the stupid cunt just had to come over and talk to me.”

He lets out a hard laugh. “He stood in front of me and told me how he was there for me, no matter what. How sorry he was that I’d lost Kate. How he missed her, too.” Liam blows out a breath. “I fucking lost it. I hit him. He went down from the one punch. If he hadn’t, I’d have pummeled him to death. Then, I walked out of her parents’ house, and I didn’t look back.”

“What happened after that?”

Liam huffs out a breath through his nose. “He rang me. The stupid fucker would dare face me, so he rang me. He knew. He saw on his phone that the last message he’d sent to Kate had been finally delivered. Maybe he was just hoping her phone had died along with her. But he was smart enough to figure out I was the one who had seen his text message. He even tried to lie to me then. Said it hadn’t been going on for long. That they’d only slept together just before she went away to Switzerland.

“I told him that I knew everything. I’d seen the texts and pictures dating back a few months that she had on her phone. She hadn’t even felt the need to delete them in fear of me seeing them. She had known I was that fucking trusting and gullible. I told him that I found out it’d been going on the whole time she and I were together. I told him that she’d kept the emails they’d been sending all that time. Guess she was fucking sentimental in that respect. Shame she didn’t feel the same way about me.

“He cried. He actually cried. Begged me to forgive him. Said he was sorry. I told him that he was as dead to me as she was. Then, I hung up the phone, and I haven’t spoken to him since. Well, not until last week when I saw him at Cam’s.”

Liam’s reaction makes a whole lot more sense to me now. How he was so territorial and possessive over me while Jeremy was there.

“They were both fools. And I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but Kate was a bitch, and she never deserved a second of your time. You were too good for her, Liam.”

Just how I don’t deserve you. You’re too good for me, Liam Hunter.

I swear, if Kate is in heaven, when I get up there, I’m going to kick her ass all the way to hell.

I rest my palm against his cheek again. He takes my hand and presses a kiss to my palm.

Then, something occurs to me, making me frown. “But Cam and Eddie are still friends with Jeremy?”

Liam brings my hand down, holding it to his chest. I can feel his heart beating strong and well.

“They don’t know the truth. I didn’t tell them. The only person who knows is my grandpa.”

“Why didn’t you tell them?” My frown twists into confusion.

“Because…I guess a part of me was embarrassed that it had been happening under my nose for so long, and I didn’t know.”

“Do you think they knew?”

“No.” He vehemently shakes his head. “Jeremy was always a selfish fuck, so his behavior wasn’t completely surprising. But not Cam and Eddie. If they’d known, they would have told me.”

“I’m glad. But you still should’ve told them.”