Chapter Thirty-One

As Jewell walked blindly along the sidewalk, tears streamed down her face. McKenzie had apologized profusely for not telling her sooner, and then apologized again for telling her now. She’d told her that maybe it was just better not to know the truth at all. She’d told her that it didn’t matter.

But it did matter.

It mattered very much.

It was about her brother — her brother and Blake. Now she knew why he’d waited three months to come back to her. He’d been planning on getting her one way or the other and he wasn’t going to stop until he got what he wanted. It had never been about love. It had always been about possession. And Blake possessed whatever in the hell he wanted to – by any mean necessary.

Blake hadn’t told her he’d adopted Justin, hadn’t told her that even after he’d come back for her, he was only a few signatures away from taking all of her rights away. He was deceitful, conniving, and the biggest asshole she’d ever known.

Was it all for sex? Did he really want to possess her so badly, he was willing to take away the only thing that mattered to her in order to keep her? Didn’t he know that all he had to do was offer her his love instead and she would stay willingly?

With Blake being Justin’s adoptive father now, he was the one with all the rights. She had none. Even though he was her brother, even though she loved him more than any other person on this earth, she had no rights to him.

But Blake wasn’t a stupid man. He knew he would get what he wanted if he held all the cards in his hands. She’d been broken the first time he’d found her, and she was even more broken now. That must be what he preferred. How could she have been foolish enough to have fallen in love with such a horrible human being?

Had Blake ever told her anything that was true? Right now, it didn’t appear to be the case. She just didn’t know anything anymore, except that she was lost, and she felt more alone than she’d ever felt.

She was going to lose her brother, and it appeared as if she’d never had Blake at all, so she couldn’t even consider the fact that it felt as if she were losing him too. He’d never been hers. But she’d been his from almost the first day.

Despair flowed through her, and as she made her way back to the place she now shared with Blake and Justin, she had no idea what she was going to do.

There was nothing left for her. She’d been fighting for so long, and still, in the end, she had nothing to show for that fight. She had to go. She just didn’t know where to go.

When she arrived at Blake’s house — she no longer felt that it was hers — she opened the door and looked inside. None of this was hers. She hadn’t picked the home, hadn’t bought the furniture, hadn’t made it a home. No, she was nothing more than a guest here.

When Blake came around the corner, he had a smile on his face, but it quickly vanished when he saw her expression. Jewell decided to push back her sadness and face him. There really was no point in dragging this out, in prolonging her agony. Neither one of them needed an emotional meltdown.

“I was worried when I came home and you weren’t here,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her and leaned down to kiss her lips.

When she didn’t respond, he drew back, worry etched on his brow. He was a fantastic actor, she realized.

She hadn’t rehearsed what she was going to say, so when the words came out, she was as surprised as he was. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice was flat, distant, but she watched his eyes.

And in that moment, she knew their marriage was over. He knew immediately what she was talking about. The pain rushing through her was trying to escape, but she suppressed it. There was no reason to make a scene. There was no reason for them to even talk about this.

It was over.

Her brother belonged with him — legally. Though she knew that no one would love Justin more than she could, that didn’t matter. She’d fought and fought the courts. They didn’t care. Blake was the one with the money, and therefore the power, and he could provide a better life for Justin than she could. It was very black and white, wasn’t it?

She needed to escape before she fell apart.

“Jewell, we need to talk. Let’s go in the living room and I’ll explain,” Blake said, reaching for her. But he could see that she couldn’t tolerate his touch right now. At least he was giving her enough respect to allow her to back away.

“There’s nothing to say, Blake. You knew the only thing I cared about in this world was getting my brother so you swooped in and stole him from me —you did what you have done your entire life, took something that doesn’t belong to you in order to win some game only you knew you were playing,” she gasped. “But just because you might be able to give him a more financially stable life than I can doesn’t make you a better parent.” She almost choked on those last words, and she had to stop.

“That’s not true, Jewell. Justin loves you so much. You are his world, his everything. I know that now. I know how much he needs you …” He broke off when she held up her hand.

She couldn’t hear this, couldn’t take his lies.

If he’d really felt this way, he never would have stolen her brother out from under her, never would have deceived her like this, never would have gone behind her back.

“It’s over, Blake. You don’t get to win me.”

Jewell turned and walked back out of the house. Nothing in it was hers — nothing. She didn’t know what she was going to tell Justin, didn’t know how to explain any of this to him, but right now she wasn’t in any way capable of telling him anything without falling apart.

Her world had once again flipped upside down.