Tell Me True by Karpov Kinrade Read Free Book Online Page A

them. "Stop!" I pulled on Ash's arm. "Stop! Let him go, it's not worth it!"
    "Say she's mine," Ash screamed at his brother.
    Jon, stubbornly refusing to reply, kept fighting.
    "Say she's mine !"
    Jon still struggled to free himself.
    Ash let go with one hand, made a fist and was about to bring it down on Jon's face. "Say—"
    "She's yours," coughed Jon. "She's yours !"
    Ash looked up and finally noticed us standing there , staring. He backed away, kicking Jon in the leg with little force. "Don't forget it." He stormed into the house and toward the front door. I chased after him, the alcohol finally catching up to me as I ran in my heels. "Ash. Ash! What happened?"
    Ash turned, the anger rolling off him like a storm of waves. "He said you're marrying the wrong Davenport."
    "Ash—"
    "Are you?"
    "No!"
    Ash nodded. "And that's what I told him. In my own way."

Chapter Nine
Deadly Secrets
PRESENT DAY
     
     
     
    ASH AND I had a quiet night in, both of us lost in our own thoughts. Cavin's suspicions of the Davenports hit too close to home with what my mother had written in her research… but he didn't know about that, so what had made him say it?
    I needed time away from all thi s, wanted to get away and talk to a close confidant, but no one in my life had been left unscathed by Jon's death—least of all the person who I wanted to talk to the most, my best friend.
    The next day I forced myself out of my own shell in order to pull Bridgette out of hers.
    Picking my way through her messy bedroom, I turned on the light and then tugged on her arm as she lay in bed with an eye mask on. "Come on, lazy ass. You need to get out of here. How about some retail therapy?" It wasn't my style, but it was how Bridgette coped. Usually.
    Today, she wouldn't budge.
    "Seriously, girl, you need a shower and a brush. I know you've been through the worst pain imaginable, but you have to go on living. Jon would want that for you. You have to pull yourself together."
    She sighed, sat up and pulled off her mask. When she screeched for the light to go away, I obliged. Finally , she showed herself. She squinted through red, puffy eyes and a tear-blotched face, looking nothing like the pale, elegant creature I knew.
    I pulled up the covers and scooted into bed with her. We wouldn't be going anywhere today, obviously.
    "You look like shit," I said.
    "I know. Now you see why I can't go out in public."
    "Bridgette, I know you cared for him, but I'm worried about you."
    We both stared at the ceiling in the dark, listening to each other breathe.
    "I'm worried about me , too," she said. "Is there a funeral date yet?"
    "We're still waiting for them to release the… him."
    "Right."
    More silence.
    "Bridgette, it's important to grieve. I know what it's like to lose someone you love." My voice choked on my own grief. "But I can't lose you. You can't lose you. You have to fight through it. You have to find something worth living for."
    Bridgette paused, then let out a choked sob. "I think it might be my fault," she said through new tears.
    "What? How?"
    "I found out something. Something bad. And… I told him. Just before he was killed."
    My heart pounded. Did this have anything to do with my mother's book? With all the secrets surrounding the Davenports?
    "What did you find out, Bridge?"
    "I was going to tell you. I tell you everything, you know that. But it was so close to your wedding and I didn't want to spoil it. So I waited. And I was going to wait to tell Jon , too, but he knew something was wrong and… I just couldn't lie to him. I ruined everything, Catelyn. Everything."
    It was getting hard to understand her through the sobs, and as much as I wanted to know this big secret, I had to calm her down first. "Shh… it's okay. I'm sure it had nothing to do with what happened to Jon."
    Bridgette made a feeble attempt to calm herself down. "Catelyn… Jon's father was having an affair. With my mother."
    "What? Are you sure?"
    "I saw them together. Naked. Ugh, it