Backstabbing Friend's Self-Inflicted Shame novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Terms

Tate came home at noon on Saturday with a bouquet of white lilies and the face he used for apologies.

I was sitting at the kitchen island in yesterday's dress, with a cup of tea going cold in front of me.

Rafe was in the guest room upstairs with the door open an inch.

The vent over the stove carried every word up to him.

I had told him to listen and not to come down, whatever he heard.

"Honey." Tate set the lilies on the counter. "I'm so sorry. You must have been sick all night."

"I was."

"I should have called the second I woke up. Valeria was locked out of her building, her key broke in the lock, and I took her in. I sat on the couch to wait for the locksmith and I fell asleep. That's all it was."

"On the bed," I said.

"She moved me. I was out cold. I get those migraines."

He said it so smoothly that for a moment I admired it.

Six years, and I had never heard him tell it that way before.

"I'm embarrassed," I said, and I let my voice crack on the word.

It cost me almost nothing.

"I stood up in front of everyone and said those things. I don't know what came over me."

Tate crossed the kitchen and put his arms around me.

He smelled of the cologne I had bought him for his birthday.

"Nobody blames you," he said into my hair. "That's why I wrote to the board. I'm trying to protect you, Greer. You need to rest. Go to the lake house for a week, and let me handle Thursday."

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