All Chapters of THE ARRANGED BRIDE : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

KELLAN'S POV "Sharon?" I muttered, turning back to the screen. Why was she calling me now-after everything? I faltered, looking over to Olivia still out on the dance floor. She looked puzzled, her eyebrows furrowing in a little knot. And really, I knew I had every reason in the world to just ignore this call. After all, it was Sharon in Paris whom I had left not much explaining and since that time, I had neither called nor written to. Something, however, didn't feel quite right.I moved away from the ballroom; the sound of clinking glasses, accompanied with suppressed chuckles, was building in volume in correlation with my steps to the quiet part of the venue - and swiped to answer on screen, bringing the phone up to my ear."Sharon-"Kellan?" A voice, other than Sharon's, came over the line. Immediately, my blood ran cold. I knew right then and there who was on the other end. It was Emma, Sharon's best friend."What's wrong?" I asked, knowing from my chest this wasn't good. One of

KELLAN'S POVI sat in that cool, antiseptic-smelling room staring at Sharon's pale, lifeless face. Quiet beeping from the machines hummed softly-low pitched-their steady rhythm the only sign that she still clung to life. Her wrists were bandaged over, scars covering what she had tried to do. That tightness seared my chest, guilt eating painfully at my insides.I'd done this. I'd pushed her to this point.How in tarnation did it get this bad?I hunched forward, my elbows to my knees, and massaged my temples. Inside, my head was a complete mess. First, everything had fallen apart, one thing after another-my doing. Sharon is fragile, sensitive, but I hadn't thought that she would go to such an extent. Now I knew keeping her at arm's length was just an act of desperation-to help her get over me. I just turned a blind eye to her suffering.And Olivia… God, what had I done to Olivia? Just left her there at that party without a word, left her marooned in the middle of a room full of people s

BRIAN'S POVI left the office and began driving home. The late evening had finally thinned the traffic - the city lights dancing across my windshield as I drove. Turning onto the street that would bring me to the house, my cell phone buzzed on the dash. A text from Kellan.Kellan:I ended things with Sharon. Meet me at the bar.I pulled over and re-read the text, trying to make out just what exactly it was he'd said. Not the attentive type of response, per say, more out of curiosity, I emailed fast and said I would be there. Then I turned the car in the direction of the named bar. all of us?I stepped into the darkened bar and didn't at all have any trouble finding Kellan. He sat at a table toward the corner, surrounded by a load of empty glasses and one half-full bottle of whiskey. His head hung low, and from across the room, it wasn't even hard for me to tell the weight of everything weighing down on him."Kellan," I said, reaching for him, but he didn't even lift his head.I slipp

KELLAN'S POVI settled back against cool leather and closed my eyes. The silence wasn't helping anything; each louder second reminded me of how much the wall had grown up between them. And how to break through that?The soft sound of feet pulled me out of it. I opened my eyes in time to see Olivia come into the room, damp hair from a taken shower, face smooth, almost too smooth, serene as if she'd made her peace with it all by then. How does she do that?“You look better," she said, soft yet certain. "I was thinking I'd make breakfast.Break-fast? After everything? Hard, I blinked in an attempt to get my head to wrap around what she'd said. She went into the kitchen like this was just any other day-like we hadn't been at each other's throats not that long ago. She wasn't even upset anymore, it seemed.I sat there and watched couldn't just sit there and watch. I eased myself up off the couch and followed her into the kitchen, not knowing really what I'd do, but knowing I needed to be c

OLIVIA'S POVI sat on the plush bed in Kellan's penthouse, hands in my lap, staring at the unfamiliar space lining the walls. Sleek, modern decoration was so very far from cozy apartments that I had left, but then again-everything about this arrangement felt alien. I agreed to move back in with him; still, it didn't feel like a homecoming. Not yet."Kellan said it was best to stay here," I grumbled, repeating in a process with myself that I had since arrival. "He didn't want us staying with his parents."And maybe he was. Complicated-mostly, being around his parents was in its own way, but being here with him… It was like standing on the edge of a cliff, not knowing whether I would fly or if Kellan would catch me this time.It was buzzing on the nightstand, and I reached over, picking it up, glad for the distraction. Brian's name flashed across the screen of my phone, and a small sigh of relief escaped my lips. At least talking to Brian always managed to make things feel just a little