Chapter 60 Ethan
SIXTY
ETHAN
“What’s going on?” I asked as Cole came into the basement. He was clearly distraught. If something happened upstairs, there was no way I’d know about it, since my part of the house was basically soundproof.
“We need to go,” Cole said. “Come on.”
I got up and followed him to the living room and out the front door without any question.
“Cole, man. What’s going on?” I asked once we were on the road. I’d come wordlessly because he’d seemed so serious.
“Just… give me a minute, OK?” he said, his voice shaking.
I stayed silent for another fifteen minutes as he drove into the city. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Talk to me. This is freaking me out,” I said.
Cole pulled the car over to a curb near a hotel and parked.
He said nothing. Instead, he pounded his fists on the steering wheel while screaming.
Finally, he stopped and breathed out.
“Enzo left.”
“He left?” I frowned. “Where did he go? I don’t understand what’s going on—”
“He broke up with Rosalie.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
He turned to me. “He broke us all up with her.”
Bile burned my throat. “What?”
“We’re staying here tonight so she can have the house. Come on. Enzo is waiting for us inside.”
I stumbled out of the car, confused, and followed Cole into the hotel. He led me straight to an elevator, and we rode up in silence, all while my brain tried to make sense of what was going on.
Top floor. Penthouse.
The doors opened, and we entered a massive hotel suite to find Enzo at the picture windows, staring out.
“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded, needing to hear it again.
Enzo turned to look at me. He was sporting a busted lip and claw marks on his face. His shirt was torn, and his chest was bleeding.
“What happened?” I asked for the third time.
“I broke us up with Rosalie,” he said, his voice wobbling.
“Why? Why the fuck are you making my decisions?” I yelled. “I didn’t want to fucking break up with her! Why would you do this!”
Panic rose in my chest. That was why Cole hadn’t told me. He knew I’d have refused to leave.
“You need time to heal, and we need to get revenge,” Enzo said. “I did it for us.”
“I-I don’t fucking need time—”
“E, you do,” Cole cut in softly. “You know you do.”
I went silent, knowing it was true, but still hating the fact.
Cole launched into what happened, and all I could do was cry and hurt for my sweetheart. She had to feel so betrayed.
Fuck. FUCK.
If I’d have just gotten my shit together. If I had tried to hold her. To tell her I loved her. That I’d be better in a few months…
“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I whispered when Cole finished telling me what happened. “I-I didn’t say goodbye.”
“It’ll be OK,” Cole murmured.
“She-She’s going to hate me. Us. H-How will we get her back?” I rocked as I sat on the couch.
“We will,” Enzo said fiercely, kneeling in front of me. “I promise, E. We need to take these pricks out. She’d have never left us any other way. Our girl was always a ride or die.”
“So you decided this was the best way?” I choked out. “By breaking her heart and making her hate us?”
“It was the only way. I-I told Vander Veer the baby is mine. Celeste has agreed to my terms. I’m going to marry her at the end of the month. I got a quick closing on the house. You and Cole will stay here. I’ll move into the house with her—”
“You can’t,” I rasped. “She’s a monster. You can’t live with her. S-She could kill you in your sleep, Enzo! Please!”
“To make it look real, I have to endure, brother. For you, I will endure. I owe this to you. Let me make things right,” he said fiercely. “Let me fix us.”
“W-We weren’t broken,” I wept. “Rosalie. Fuck!”
“Easy,” he said gently. “I promise, E. I fucking promise you.”
“What about the baby?”
“I’m going to have her tested soon. I just need your blood. I’ve already spoken to the doc about it. If it truly is your kid, I’ll take him in as my own. You won’t have to—”
I sobbed harder, hugging myself as I rocked.
“E,” Cole said, sitting next to me. “I love you, man. This hurts us all.”
“I don’t want a kid. I fucking don’t. Not with her. Not with that monster. H-How will I ever be able to look at it without remembering…” I rocked faster.
I was going to be sick.
“You won’t have to. I’ll get nannies. I’ll have the kid sent to the best schools. The baby will grow to be like you, E. Not like her. I promise you that, and she will be dealt with,” Enzo said.
“I’m going to be sick.” I launched off the couch and rushed to the bathroom and heaved my guts into the toilet.
Both guys came in and sat with me while I continued to vomit. I’d lost everything. My girl. My life. My best friend. All of it. Gone.
And all because people were sick monsters.
“Here,” Enzo said, handing me a cup of water once I was done puking. I swished out my mouth and spit it into the toilet as Cole handed me another cup, which I drank down before flushing.
I fell back against the wall on my ass, my body weak.
“I-I need to be drugged. Put me under. Please,” I whispered. “I-I can’t do this. I need to sleep.”
“OK,” Enzo murmured, nodding for Cole. Cole left the room and came back a moment later with a kit and put the meds into my veins.
I breathed out as the warmth rushed through me.
“Come on,” Enzo said. “Let’s get you into bed before you fall under.”
I stumbled up and let him and Cole lead me to a bedroom where I collapsed onto the bed. I was already struggling to keep my eyes open while they tugged off my jeans and shoes.
I didn’t like being touched yet, but I was too fucked to care in that moment, even though my body did jerk whenever they got too close.
“Sleep, brother,” Enzo whispered, tucking my blankets around me.
“Rosalie,” I whimpered. “I’m sorry.”
And that was it.
I was sorry.
For everything.