Craving The Wrong Brother (Sloane and Knox) novel Chapter 178

Chapter 178

“What?” he says.

I repeat, “Did you tell her to throw me off Brooklyn Bridge?”

He looks at me like I’m speaking in tongues, his mouth opening and closing, grasping for words. “Julie, I… I’d never do that. What are you even talking about? Your mother said you attacked her.”

My jaw drops. “Attacked her?”

“Wasn’t that what happened?”

“She tried to throw me off the bridge, Ryan! What language have I been speaking?”

His face falters. He steps forward, trying to reach for my hand. “Julie, I’m sorry… I didn’t know—”

I yank my hand back. “Sorry? You don’t get to be sorry, Ryan. Sorry implies you care. And if you did, you wouldn’t have sent that witch to me in the first place. You know how much I despise it when you do that. Yet you do it every time to piss me off. Is this one of your kinks? You somehow get off on pissing me off?”

“Please, Julie,” he murmurs. “I know how much you’re hurting right now. I know how scared you must have been on that bridge, fighting for your life. But please, let’s talk about it. Think of the press-if you press charges, it’s going to be all over the news, and it won’t help anything. We’ll all just look bad, and then we’ll have to do damage control for the company.”

My blood freezes. “The company? That’s what you’re worried about?”

Emily comes out of the house right then, her gaze shifting between me and Ryan. “What’s going on?”

I and Ryan both speak at the same time.

“This is between Ryan and me. Go back inside-”

“Julie’s suing her mother-”

I look at Ryan. My whole body feels like it’s one wrong breath away from exploding. “What the hell?”

“Julie,” he whispers, stepping forward. “Come on… you know she wouldn’t have gone through with the threat. You’ve said it yourself several times that your mother is a bully. That’s all she is. Nothing more.”

A wounded laugh escapes my lips. I have to close my eyes for a second, count to five, because if I don’t, I might start screaming. And the crazy part? I’d probably never stop. But his voice grates at me like sandpaper. She wouldn’t have gone through with the threat? Is he serious? “Oh, I know she would, Ryan. I was there. I was the one gripping the cold metal of the bridge, praying I wouldn’t feel her hands shoving me off. I was the one who almost got a mouthful of icy river water.”

“I’ll talk to her,” he says, like those words are supposed to make it all vanish. He steps even closer, reaching out again. “I Swear, I’ll fix it. Set her straight.”

I step back. “Fix it? There’s no ‘fixing’ this, Ryan. And don’t insult me by pretending that you’ll try. We both know what you’ll do. You’ll excuse her behavior, sweep it under the rug, and hope I forget. Well, surprise-I’m not forgetting. Not this time.”

“Julie. You’re letting your emotions cloud-”

“Oh, I’m emotional, am I?” My voice rises. “Good. I’m glad. Because I am emotional about this. And you… you should be too. That’s what normal people do, Ryan. They care when their wife almost dies.”

“I do care, Julie. I’m just trying to look at this reasonably. Because what’s pressing charges going to do? You know the media -if this gets out, it’ll be everywhere. They’ll twist it until we’re painted as lunatics.”

Chapter 178

“So, you’d rather protect her than defend me? And don’t you dare say it’s for my sake or that you’re doing this to save me from public scrutiny. I don’t care what anyone else thinks, Ryan. I know what happened. I know who she is.”

He lets out a breath, runs a hand over his face. “Fine. You want me to hate her? To burn bridges with your mother? Is that what you want, Julie?”

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