Once Love, Double Betrayal Chapter 05

Once Love, Double Betrayal Chapter 05

I spun on my heel to leave, but Adrian snapped out of his daze and caught my wrist in a vise grip.

His near-bloodless face was etched with raw terror. “Claire! Just hear me out!”

His hand trembled against my skin, frantic-like a kid caught red-handed, desperate to shift the

blame. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Claire. She seduced me.”

“She got me blackout drunk while I was away on pack business and crawled into my bed. She said if I didn’t give in, she’d go straight to you and make sure I lost you for good.”

“Claire.” His eyes welled crimson as he looked at me. “I can’t lose you. You know I love you.”

“Claire, I love you!”

I’d played out every ugly scenario in my head before-Adrian’s gaze drifting toward Candy’s wild, reckless energy; the two of them clashing like sworn enemies until one spark turned into a wildfire they tried to hide from me.

I’d even imagined the day everything came out, and Adrian chose her, calling me unreasonable for not understanding.

But never-not once-had I imagined that the man I’d loved for years would turn into such a spineless coward when the truth clawed its way out.

I glanced at Candy. Her earlier bravado drained away, leaving her pale as a ghost. A brittle laugh escaped me. “Candy, your taste in men is… underwhelming.”

The tears wouldn’t come anymore. Yesterday I’d cried an ocean; today the well had run dry.

All that remained was the absurd wreckage of what we’d had.

I looked at Adrian-whimpering like a kicked pup-and wrenched my wrist free, stepping back.

“Adrian.” I slid the couple’s ring off my finger and hurled it at his face with everything I had. “You disgust me.”

I stormed to the car, slammed the door, and fired the engine before he could blink.

Adrian lost it. He scooped the ring off the ground and sprinted after me, screaming, “Claire!”

He threw himself in front of the hood like a madman. His warriors shouted his name; Candy shrieked and bolted after him, clutching his arm.

They actually thought that would stop me.

I didn’t brake. I floored it. Candy yanked Adrian sideways at the last second; they both hit the dirt in a tangle of limbs.

Through the windshield, I gave the pair one last icy stare, then punched the accelerator and tore out of the lot-straight to the apartment Adrian and I had bought in the human city, our so-called love

nest.

Adrian was my first love, the only man who’d ever set my pulse racing.

I remembered the day he closed on the place-how he’d dragged me to the title office, grinning ear

and signed the deed over to me on the spot.

to ear,

“Claire, what’s mine is yours. What’s yours stays yours. My life’s mission is making you happy.”

Now every inch of the apartment stabbed me: the open layout we’d argued over for weeks, the stupid crescent-moon key hook by the door-every detail was another knife twist of memory.

The pain wasn’t the raw agony of the first betrayal anymore. It was a hollow ache, like something vital had been carved out of my chest.

I didn’t take much-just the jewelry my parents had given me.

I was halfway out the door when Adrian came barreling in, breathless and wild-eyed.

“Claire.”