Chapter 15
Gray's fingers curled around the doorknob, but he didn't turn it.
It was her voice.
Not the words—just the tone.
There was something in it he had never heard before, something that cut through his anger, through the suffocating weight of his emotions, through everything.
It wasn't pleading or guilt.
It wasn't anger.
It wasn't even heartbreak.
It was quiet. Cold. Final.
Gray hesitated.
He turned his head slightly, just enough to see her from the corner of his eye. She was still sitting on the couch, her hands resting on her lap, her entire body trembling, though whether it was from anger or something else, he couldn't tell.
"Sit down."
Her voice was emotionless, but there was steel running through it.
Gray exhaled slowly. He let go of the doorknob and, without a word, turned back.
He sat down on the couch opposite her, elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped together.
Cadi didn't look at him.
Her gaze was fixed somewhere over his shoulder, her breathing slow, measured, like she was trying to keep herself from falling apart.
A long silence stretched between them.
Then, finally—
"How long?"
Gray frowned slightly. "What?"
Her voice didn't waver. "How many times have you been with her?"
The question landed like a fist to his gut.
"Was it only her?" Cadi continued, her voice flat. "Or are there more willing groupies?"
His jaw tightened. "That is none of your business. "
The way he said it made Cadi's stomach turn. It wasn't just dismissive. There was something defensive in it, something almost... protective.
Like Vanessa deserved better than to be discussed with someone like her.
Cadi let out a soft laugh, but there was no humour in it—just something hollow, something raw.
For the first time since sitting down, Cadi turned her head to look at him.
The agony in her eyes sent a sickening wave of guilt rolling through his stomach.
She was pale—so pale her freckles stood out starkly against her skin, her lips bloodless. Her breathing was shallow, her shoulders locked so tightly she looked as though she might snap in half.
Gray's body moved before he could stop himself. He started to stand, reaching for her—
"Sit down."
Her voice was so raw it was painful to hear.
Gray froze.
She wasn't just pale. She looked like she was about to pass out.
A pulse of unease passed through him, cold and deep, like someone had just walked over his grave.
Cadi closed her eyes for a long moment, her fingers curling slightly against her lap. When she opened them again, her expression was empty.
Not neutral. Not controlled.
Just... gone.
Gray's stomach twisted violently.
This wasn't the Cadi he knew.
Did she ever exist?
She cleared her throat. The sound was dry, brittle.
Then, in a voice he had never heard from her before, she spoke.
"So you think I had an affair with Callum while you were in Brisbane."
Gray stiffened, but she didn't stop.
"Then I got pregnant. And once you got home, I passed him off as yours."
Her crystalline eyes darkened, her pupils swallowing the icy pale blue.
"Then I continued to bring Callum over. Probably also christened all the horizontal and a few vertical surfaces in the house."
Gray's fist clenched.
"All the while, my husband was slaving away."
Her lips curled slightly, but it wasn't a smile. It was more like the snarl of a wild animal.
"And if that wasn't diabolical enough, I somehow managed to pass my 'secret love child' as yours."
She tilted her head, her expression blank.
"Have I got this right?"
A hollow silence filled the room.
Then Cadi arched a fine brow, her voice cutting through the tension like a blade.
"Have I missed anything? Any detail?"
Gray clenched his jaw. He felt self-righteous—he had every right to be angry, didn't he?
And yet...
Somehow, without realizing when or how, the ground had shifted beneath him.
He had started this, fuelled by certainty, by betrayal, by the need to finally lay it all out. But now, sitting across from her—watching her, listening to her—he wasn't sure who was in control anymore.
And that unsettled him more than he cared to admit.