Chapter 30
Rooster
Heathen is the first to stand from the table and follow Morgan from the room.
Hanging my head, I fight the utter exhaustion threatening to take over. I feel it in every cell in my body, and at this moment, I don't know how I'll even make it up the stairs to my bed.
I spent half an hour staring at those text messages when I discovered them. I had gone through cell phone records, comparing what was on her phone to her service provider's data and researching things that didn't match. That's how I discovered them.
I stared at them for hours before trying to reverse-engineer them to make sure they were real. I couldn't discredit them, and even after another hour, I hadn't told anyone I'd found them. I didn't want to believe that they were true, that she had manipulated me from the very beginning, but as the shock wore off, the anger began to set in.
Prior interactions with Henry made me sad because I just wanted my twin to love me as much as I always loved him, but this time around, I was affected by someone more. Knowing she could've been exactly what I'd discovered her to be hurt me more than Henry's role in this, and that's on me. I wanted so badly to look past the red flags and ignore the chance that she was here to deceive me.
I feel like such a fool, and when I pull my head out of my hands and look up, I spot Twisted standing on the other side of the room glaring at me.
"What?" I snap, anger from the entire situation bubbling to the surface, making it very hard to control my emotions.
"You really believe that shit?" he asks, pointing to the television even though I've already taken down the messages I'd discovered.
"You really think I'd let that shit play out the way it did if I hadn't spent hours researching and trying to prove that they were fake?" I growl.
"I made her come here. She would've stayed in her house. She didn't want to leave," he argues.
"And with as easily as she manipulated me, you don't think she was putting on an act?"
"If you knew this was always a possibility, you should've left her the fuck alone," he says, walking out of the room before I can argue my position any further.
He may have a point on how I should've managed my behavior, but that doesn't take into account that, from the text messages, her goal was to always get closer to me.
Silence swarms around me and I hate it. My legs feel like lead weights as I stand. I don't know why I feel like I need to talk to her. Maybe because there's a very good chance that Henry has been taking advantage of her as well. If the man can't be a good person for his blood relatives, I don't see him changing for a woman. Every person in his life has always been a pawn, and I have no doubt that Morgan is no different.
I feel as if I have the weight of the world on my shoulders as I trudge up the stairs, and guilt, along with a million other unprocessed emotions, fill me as I get closer to her room and see the door standing open.
I don't have to step inside to know that in the twenty minutes since she left the conference room, she has also left the house.
"Heathen and Kaylee are going to stay with her tonight," Bandera says, startling me. "Do you need to talk about this with someone?"
"Are you offering?" I ask with little to no emotion in my tone. I just don't have the fucking energy for any of it right now.
"I'm not skilled enough for that shit," he says, his voice sounding much weaker than it did not long ago when he was confronting Morgan in the conference room. "I can find someone for you, though."
"I'm fine," I mutter, walking further down the hallway toward my room.
Even though I want to rage and break shit, I don't even slam my bedroom door. I simply close it quietly and fall onto my unmade bed.
It isn't long before the scent of her skin fills my nose, and although she used my bodywash last night, it smells different on her body than it does on mine. It feels like yet another betrayal. Instead of stripping the bed and deleting that part of her from my life, I simply stand back up and head down to my office. I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I tried, despite the exhaustion coating my bones.
I torture myself even further, giving in to Henry's plan for me as I watch the cameras on the outside of Morgan's house.
Fifteen minutes after returning to my office, the SUV, driven by Heathen, pulls up outside her house. Morgan looks just as broken as I feel as she climbs out of the back passenger seat, not bothering to grab her bags as if she knows Heathen will argue if she tries.
Her steps are small and slow, as if she, too, has the weight of the world on her shoulders as she walks toward her front entrance.
I can't decide if I've made the biggest fucking mistake of my life or if this is just another ploy of hers.
Kaylee isn't very far behind her. After they enter the house, Heathen trailing behind only a minute or so later with several bags in his hands, I have nothing else to watch.
She doesn't have cameras in her home, and despite what has played out, even watching her outside cameras feels like a violation.
I shift my focus, accessing the cameras from around the neighborhood so I can set a good perimeter on her house, and that's how I spend the rest of the evening and all night.
I know Whiskey is outside her house keeping an eye on things, and Heathen is inside, but Henry is a sneaky fucker. He's not the violent type. At least he wasn't until he pulled that shit with Kaylee, but I wouldn't put it past him to challenge himself by trying to get to her without anyone knowing.
I don't understand why my mind keeps wanting to go back and forth. Worrying about her when she's in on the plan seems ridiculous. Part of me can't help but want to still give her the benefit of the doubt, but even if the text messages aren't real, my chance with her is gone. There isn't a woman in her right mind who would be okay with what happened here today and chalk it up to a misunderstanding.
Another night goes by, another handful of lost hours that I can't really account for because it was spent doing the same monotonous thing, simply staring at my computer screen and waiting for something to happen.
I sit up straighter in my chair, feeling weak and achy all over, when her front door opens.
Kaylee walks out first, followed by Heathen. Morgan takes up the end, turning to lock the door behind them. But instead of immediately walking away, she faces the camera on her doorbell as if she somehow knows I'm watching her.
I swallow, the pit in my stomach growing larger and spreading like cancer to every cell in my body at the sight of her. She looks less put together than I'd ever seen her, and I know by the irritation around her eyes that she spent the night crying. If I could reach out to her and pull her into my arms at this moment, I wouldn't even hesitate, text messages be damned.
This isn't the kind of shit you can fake.
She's just a regular woman, even as extraordinary as I know she is.
She isn't a con artist or an actress who Henry sought as part of his plan to hurt me.
"You hurt me," she whispers, more because her voice is weak rather than trying to conceal what she's saying from anyone. "I wish you really would've just left me alone because this really sucks."
My heart shatters as she turns and walks away. There's no longer any doubt in my mind that she had absolutely nothing to do with Henry past what she told us happened. He had to have somehow managed to clone her phone and send those texts back and forth, despite me spending hours determining that it didn't happen. It all had to have been fabricated.
I've ruined any chance I had with her, and I can't help but understand somehow that we were meant to be together forever. She was my soulmate, and I let the history with my brother ruin the best thing that has ever happened to me.
There's no way she would forgive this, but that doesn't mean I should give up, either. I owe it to both of us to try and get her back, no matter what it costs me.