Chapter 42

MELANIE Iglance over my reflection in the bathroom mirror of Tyler’s apartment. No amount of carefully applied makeup can hide the fact that I’ve been crying for the past two hours. I wish I didn’t have the fundraiser tonight, but it’s the one thing keeping me from finding my brother and wringing his neck. I sniff, stifling yet another sob. Pull yourself together, Mel.It’s not like what Nathan and I had was real. Not like he would ever truly love me. Except it felt real. It felt better than anything I’ve ever had before. And even if it wasn’t, he made me feel like it was. He didn’t deserve any of what happened to him. Nobody deserves that, and the thought that I might have been able to stop it, or that I ever agreed to any part of it, is eating me alive. I can’t get the image of him waking up confused and terrified with some strange woman in his bed out of my head. How he told me that it broke his heart to think he cheated on me. My head drops, and a shuddering sob wracks my body. Ever