When The Wolves Come Out

Chapter 39

I yawn and rub my eyes, slowly becoming aware of the fact that I'm still laying on the sofa with Ethan. Our legs are tangled together and I carefully slip away from him and stand up. I pat down my pyjamas, kissing Ethan's cheek briefly before heading back upstairs.

The guilt was building up brick by brick, and I was only making it worse.

I walk into my room to see Stefano sat on the edge of the bed, his face in his hands. He looks up when he sees me, and I notice that his eyes are red and puffy with bags under them. He'd been crying over me?

"Lyn, we need to talk." He stands up, walking closer to me but I take a couple steps back.

"There's nothing to talk about," I whisper. "You don't want to get married and I appreciate your decision. Let's leave it at that."

I force out each word, my heart breaking at the thought of losing my future with Stefano, although something inside of me craved to be back in Ethan's arms again.

"No, let's discuss this," Stefano says firmly, clearly trying to hold back his anger.

"It's early in the morning. Let's talk later—"

"No!" he yells. "Just fucking listen to me for once, Lyn!"

I gasp, taken aback by his anger. Where was all of this coming from?

He steps closer to me until I'm pinned against the wall. It's only when his body is pressed right to mine, I smell the alcohol in his breath. He wasn't crying. He'd been drinking.

"Stefano," I breathe out. "Why were you drinking?"

He clenches his jaw, and when he looks at me again I see genuine tears now brimming his eyes. "Lyn, I can't do this. I thought I could get out of it."

"Stefano... This isn't you," I whisper, touching his cheek.

He leans into my cheek, letting a single tear fall. I wipe it away with my thumb, forcing him to look at me in the eye.

"When you're sober again, we'll talk this through," I say.

"No. I was sober when I said about the marriage thing."

Oh.

He actually meant it.

Even though I didn't know about the drinking at the time, there was still hope inside of me that he wasn't sure about his decision. I guess I was wrong.

"Baby, listen to me," Stefano mumbles. "I know what's best for us. We'll stay a couple, that's for sure, but we will get married when we're older."

I shake my head in disbelief. "Don't call me baby. This isn't the Stefano I know. I don't know a man who relies on drinking when it comes to problems."

And with small regret, I slip away and leave Stefano standing speechless.

~~

Most of my day is quiet and I try to ignore all of Stefano's attempts to talk to me. I honestly wasn't in the mood to discuss the whole marriage thing seeing as I knew it would only make me sadder.

I go outside and sit on the bench swing, slowly swaying back and forth. I hear footsteps behind me and Grayson comes over and sits next to me.

We stay in silence for a while until he finally speaks up, "Do you love Stefano?"

"Well, I guess," I reply, slightly shocked.

"You guess? Or you know?"

"Please, Grayson. Let's not talk about this," I sigh.

"I'm sorry, Ashlyn. It's just... I want you to be with me, and why wouldn't I? We're mates."

"I know we are, but it's more complicated than that."

"How?" Grayson asks, stopping the chair from swinging.

"I love three people," I say simply.

"But you can't choose all three."

"You think I don't know that?" I yell, tears brimming my eyes. "I fucking love three people, and two of them don't even respect my space!"

"I wasn't trying to get you upset, Ashlyn! Just listen to me!"

I blink back tears and bite my lip, shaking my head. "You want me to choose, don't you?" I whisper.

"I want it to be fair. If you don't choose me, I'll still love you."

"Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Making it hard."

"Just, choose. Do it for all three of us." And then Grayson stands up, walking away and leaving me with my mind tumbling.

Just one.