A Heart Not Easily Broken by M.J. Kane

  Chapter 35

  The woman I loved walked out of my life without slamming the door.

  What the fuck just happened?

  Twenty minutes ago, we were lying in bed while I said the stupidest shit in my life.

  I love you. I want you to be happy. I want you to be sure.

  It was all true.

  I loved her deeply. I wanted her to be happy with me. I needed her to be sure.

  Listening to Brad talk about how his willingness to give the love of his life up solidified their happy ending was admirable. Was I wrong for wanting the same?

  Ebony made it known the night we met I was not her type. But I wanted her. My persistence eventually broke down her walls and let me in. Not just as a friend, not just as a lover, but into her heart.

  At least that’s what I thought.

  Ebony was mine when I left town. She promised to wait for me. I promised her I’d be faithful, and I had been. No matter how many times temptation to relieve the sexual frustration building inside waved itself in my face.

  I never questioned her whereabouts nor speculated what she was doing the times she didn’t answer her phone. Ebony never gave me reason to not trust her with my heart.

  I remembered the day she changed. Things were fine the first day I was gone. We talked, sent text messages, flirted on the phone, taunting and teasing late into the night.

  Until day two.

  It was the night of our first show and the stadium was filled to capacity. Anxious to tell her about it, I called after two A.M., even though she would be going to class early the next morning. When there was no answer, I assumed she was asleep. We hadn’t missed a call the same time the night before. I was disappointed, but understood.

  That was the night Ebony came back to my house for the ID she claimed to have lost.

  I closed my eyes. Then it dawned on me. She hadn’t answered because she lay under Javan. The image of her caramel legs spread wide for him, mocking me as he pumped inside of her pushed itself in my head.

  He hadn’t answered his cell either.

  Dammit!

  We talked the next day. I asked about the missing card and it took a minute before she answered my question. With all the problems she’d endured because of losing the thing, it surprised me she hadn’t been excited about getting her book.

  I sent her the money she needed and extra for anything else she hadn’t mentioned.

  Now I understood.

  She used the lost ID as a ruse, a convenient excuse for her to slip in and fuck Javan’s brains out.

  Ebony was that damn good in bed.

  I rubbed the aching spot in my chest, the place where my heart had been before she ripped it out.

  No wonder he’d been smug about the possibility of her cheating. He’d been joking about sleeping with her since the first time I mentioned her name. If Ebony gave him a hint of wanting to fuck him, he’d jump at the opportunity without thinking twice.

  The sick bastard.

  What happened to the Ebony I knew? The beautiful, caring, hard-working woman I’d fallen in love with? That woman would never lie about her feelings for me, then sleep with my so-called friend. My Ebony would never sleep with her best friend’s boyfriend.

  I rose from the sofa to pace the living room.

  The last night we spent in my bed before I left town blew my mind. She declared her love for me. She promised to wait for me. She promised to love our baby if she’d gotten pregnant.

  The love we’d made that night had been like nothing we’d ever done before. I knew without a doubt she wanted to be with me.

  When I boarded the bus, she kissed me with such passion everyone within viewing distance knew the depth of our relationship.

  If Ebony truly meant it, why in the hell would she cheat on me less than two days later?

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  ‘Javan raped me.’

  Why allege the assault? I stopped in the middle of the living room and dug the heels of my palms into my eyes to wipe the memory of the conversation away. It didn’t work. Ebony’s pained expression planted itself firmly in my mind.

  Her face appeared to be a mixture of pain, sorrow, and relief. Why? Why would telling me she’d been raped ­ not made love to or even fucked ­ be a relief?

  If she cheated on me and I addressed it, wouldn’t she look guilty?

  There was no evidence of embarrassment or regret in her voice or her eyes.

  My pace brought me to the CD shelf and blocked my path.

  Ebony claimed Javan trapped her between the sofa and the door.

  I tried to picture it in my mind. Javan and I were the same height. At six-two, Ebony’s head stopped at my shoulder, making her the perfect height to lean down and kiss. The difference in our height made me feel the need to protect her like a fragile vase in need of care so that it wasn’t broken.

  To Javan, she would be the perfect target for intimidation.

  What had she said?

  ‘He slammed me into the wall…CDs hit the floor…’

  My attention went directly to the shelf and the empty spaces of the missing discs. When I had gotten home the shelf had been out of order. Javan very rarely borrowed any of the discs. He preferred hi-tech equipment instead of old school CDs. He’d given me his entire collection after moving his music to MP3s.

  Ebony hadn’t borrowed any discs.

  On a hunch, I pulled the shelf away from the wall. Despite wishing I was wrong, the evidence didn’t lie.

  The four-inch wide dent in the wall had not been there when I left. When I looked down I spied the missing CDs half hidden beneath the corner of the shelf. A thick layer of dust collected on them.

  And there was Ebony’s ID, covered in the same layer of dust.

  My heart dropped to the floor the same time my knees hit. I wrapped my fingers tightly around the plastic. My grip snapped it in half.

  Ebony had been telling the truth.

  Javan did rape her.

  I am going to kill…that sick son-of-a-bitch.