“I’m not mad at you.” Her voice was quiet, calming me. “You didn’t know what was going on. I know.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. “You should have called me. I would have beaten the shit out of my brother.”
“I handled him on my own.”
I lifted my chin from her thigh then looked up at her. “I don’t need the results. I know you didn’t lie to me. I don’t care what Zander said. He’s just saying this to break us up. It’s a pathetic last attempt.”
She smiled down at me. “I’m glad you realize that.”
I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “If you said you didn’t sleep with him, I believe you.”
“Did Sean tell you the results?”
“No. And I don’t want to know.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I trust you, Cassandra. I already know what the test says.”
She leaned down and kissed me on the head. “This is what I’ve always wanted.”
“What?” I whispered.
“To be with a man I trust implicitly, and for him to trust me back. As long as we have that, nothing will tear us apart, not now, not ever.”
I pulled her to the edge of the chair then moved between her thighs, my face pressed to her stomach. I rubbed her thighs while I sat there quietly, enjoying the silent moment. She wasn’t leaving me. She didn’t hate me. “I’m sorry about Sean.”
She sighed. “I was very upset with the way he spoke to me. But deep down, I know he was just trying to protect you.”
“He could have told me to have a paternity test. Forcing you to do it is unacceptable. This is my marriage. He needs to back off.”
“You know Sean, he’s never been normal.”
“Did he touch you?” I demanded.
“No.”
If he had, I’d kill him. “Baby, I’m so sorry about all of this. The last thing I want to do is make you question your decision to marry me. The request for the test was out of line. I never would have asked you that.”
She cupped my cheek. “First of all, only you can make me question our marriage. No one else. And secondly, it wasn’t an unreasonable request. If you asked me to do it, I would have done so in a heartbeat with no resentment. I have nothing to hide. But it pissed me off that your brother came here and forced me to do it. Our relationship is none of his business. I used to respect Sean, but that crossed a line. Just because he didn’t agree with the decision didn’t mean he had the right to change it. And I hope the results made him feel like shit.”
I already knew what they said. I wasn’t surprised. “I’m sure they did.”
“I’m not sure if I want him to be your best man anymore. It’s hard for me to look at him knowing what he did. To be called a liar to your face by your brother-in-law isn’t exactly nice. He said he didn’t trust me and couldn’t. It’s just…we’re supposed to be a family. And families trust each other.”
I was pissed at Sean but I hadn’t had time to think about the wedding. I assumed he would be my best man because he was my brother. We’d been through a lot together. He pissed me off more times than I could c ount, but this was different. If I ever did the same thing to Scarlet, Sean would turn his back on me. When it came to his wife, he was a different person. And when it came to Cassandra, so was I. “I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s your decision,” she said. “But he and I will never be the same—not after that.”
Why did Sean have to ruin this? “Yeah…”
She cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead. “I’m sorry Zander tried to manipulate you.”
“It’s okay. I saw right through it.”
“I just want us to be happy. I don’t want anymore bullshit.”
“Then let me kill him.”
She smirked then ran her fingers through my hair. “Violence solves nothing.”
“Yes, it does. It’ll cure my headache immediately.”
“Your brother was the cause of that one, not Zander.” She rose from the chair then moved to the kitchen. “Dinner is almost ready.”
“Okay.”