Twinsequences (Twisted Twin #1)(26)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I felt him playing with the long strands of my hair. “I hate that I hurt you.”

“Me too.”

He pulled me close so he could kiss the side of my head. “There’s never going to be enough time to make up for what’s been taken from you. I hate myself for being a part of that pain.”

I reached my arm across his chest and sat up to look directly in his eyes. I could see the pain reflected back at me. “I wish I could snap my fingers and forget about all of it, but we both know that isn’t how things work. I need time, Stosh. It’s all just too recent for me to be able to fully recover. The pain is still new and I need to heal inside before I can begin to forgive. I hope you understand.”

He looked even sadder. “I get it. I mean, I don’t like it, but I get it.”

He just held me for the longest time, there in my bed, without saying another word. Being in his arms made me feel like I wasn’t alone anymore. Part of me didn’t want him to ever let go.

I wasn’t a fool. I knew he’d betrayed me, but the extent of his deception wasn’t unforgivable. If Stosh was telling me the truth, and he did do all of that for a chance to be with me, I couldn’t exactly hate him. It was almost like a desperate plea. I got that he plotted with my sister, but he was there with me, just me.

Further into the night, we climbed under the covers and slept. As much as I wanted to have hot magical sex with the man, we still needed rest to be able to perform.

I had so much weighing on me, especially the fact that I hadn’t gone through with the abortion. Now, I was the one keeping the secrets.

The decision that I’d made was life changing, but the most important part of it was keeping my secret safe until I knew that Stosh could be trusted. I wasn’t going to be naïve and let my guard down when it came to that.

The next morning, I woke to the smell of coffee. I stretched, went in the bathroom to freshen up, and even made sure my hair was decent, before going out to look for Stosh. I found him watching the sports channel. He had a cup of coffee in one hand and an apple fritter in the other.

“Good morning, beautiful.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“Only the ones that put out.” He winked and took another bite of his fritter. “This tastes so good.” He was making these faces like it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. “Oh, sorry. Did you want one?”

I walked into the kitchen and found a box from a local bakery. Inside were three more fritters. I peeked out past the breakfast bar and saw him smiling. “Are you trying to earn brownie points?”

“Is it working?”

I grabbed one and took a bite, savoring the taste for a second. “Maybe.”

“Your coffee is in the microwave. I wasn’t sure how much beauty rest was required to keep up that model like appearance.”

I picked up the roll of paper towels and tossed them at him. “I’ll have you know that I look like this every day even without sleep!”

He just shook his head and laughed at me. “I bet you do!”

Once I had my coffee heated, I went and cuddled up next to Stosh. I wrapped my arms around his upper body. “This is nice.”

“This is how it’s supposed to be.”

He picked up one of my hands and intertwined our fingers.

I liked seeing them bound together, like we were one, and nothing was ever going to tear us apart.

At around ten in the morning, his phone started blowing up. He finally had to put the thing on silent because we were tired of hearing it ring. “I’m sorry.”

I tried to smile. “It’s fine. I know this is part of the process.”

He kissed me again. “You’re worth it!”

I sat up. “Maybe you should answer it. They obviously aren’t going to stop. It could be something important. He gave me a dirty look and picked up his phone.

“Hi, Mom. . . No! I’m not discussing that with you. . . I don’t care what she’s says. . .It doesn’t matter where I am. . .Yes, I understand. . . I know what’s at stake and I don’t care. I will explain later. Just know that I’m fine and I have my reasons. . . Okay, goodbye!”

I didn’t want to ask what it was about. It was obvious. My sister had called his parents.

He grabbed my hand and wrapped it around his own body. “Apparently, she’s keeping tabs on me. I haven’t even heard from her and the day I leave town she’s calling my parents. She’s like a f**king stalker.”

“I assume they’re mad?”

“They don’t understand. They think I’ve been unfaithful to a perfect wife. They have no clue that she’s a monster, nobody does.” He shook his head.

“I do! That monster is doing her best to ruin my life.”

He rubbed my cheek. “Good thing your knight in shining armor is here to save the day.”

“You’re not wearing any metal,” I teased.

“Keep joking and I won’t be wearing anything” It was a threat that I intended to see through.

“I won’t fight you on that decision, you know.”

We both began to laugh.

Things got quiet for a little while, but the longer it was like that, the longer I wondered what exactly his mother had said. I wanted to know if I was the whore that Ivy had made me out to be. It crushed me thinking about those people hating me for something that wasn’t even true.

“Stosh, do your parents hate me?” I lifted my head off of his chest and looked right at him.

“They don’t know the truth, Will. It doesn’t matter what they think. When all the truth comes out, they’ll love you as much as I do.”

His words were reassuring, but they didn’t make me feel any better. It was hard to be hated by someone. It was harder to consider that one day, they could possibly be my in-‐laws. I didn’t want that kind of animosity between us from the start.

We didn’t have time to wait for Ivy to screw up. It was up to me to take her down.

Chapter 14

Twin Envy.

It hadn’t taken Ivy long to locate her estranged husband. She should have known she could find him in my bed, where he belonged. I hadn’t pitched my plan to Stosh, but after just one night with him, I knew his intentions were real. It wasn’t in the way he was acting, or even treating me. Somehow, I just knew it. I could feel it every time we touched.

It wasn’t until later that afternoon that I started getting the hateful messages.