One Night With The Wrong Brother novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Say It Out Loud

Lana's POV

Mitchell came back up the stairs with mud on his boots and blood on his knuckles that wasn't his own.

I had watched the whole thing through the window.

I hadn't heard what Lawrence said, but I had seen him smile with his lip split open.

"Tell me," I said.

He told me.

He told me about the four glasses of champagne, and the bartender, and the coat check.

He told me Friday.

When he got to the police, I sat down on the arm of the sofa because my knees stopped working.

"He'll say you assaulted me."

"He'll say I didn't stop."

"That isn't true."

"Isn't it?"

The question hung in the room between us.

I had been carrying this for two weeks, hot and heavy under my ribs.

I knew that if I didn't put it down now, I never would.

"You heard me say his name," I said. "That night."

Mitchell went very still.

"Over and over. Every time you touched me. Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence. I was saying it into your neck." My voice cracked. "And you kept going."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because he'd told me you wanted it that way." He didn't look away. "And because I'd have taken any name you gave me, Lana. That's the part I can't forgive."

I had been ready for an excuse.

I wasn't ready for that.

"I want you to know something," he said. "When you finally said please, I knew you weren't saying it to me."

His throat moved.

"I let it be enough for one night. I've hated myself every day since."

I got up.

I crossed the loft, past the hull with its bare ribs, and stopped an arm's length away.

"The other thing he said tonight," I said. "Why you left. Tell me that, too."

He told me about the garage, and the valet, and the pen.

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