Read Online Unspeakable Truths by Alice Montalvo-Tribue - Free Book Online Page A

have waited, I never pushed him for it, I swear. It wouldn’t have mattered to me.”
    “I believe you, but he wanted it for you, and when he wanted something he got it.”
    I look at him stunned, my body frozen, unmoving and more than anything sad. Sad for what Tyler felt he had to do to get ahead. I sit here wondering if I played a part in that belief, wondering if I ever did anything or said anything to make him think I had to have whatever it was he was trying to provide me, when really all I ever needed was him.
    “In the end he owed over a hundred thousand dollars Ev. He called me the morning after the wedding. He told me he was taking all of the cash you guys had received for wedding presents and he was meeting with the bookie to pay him something as a sign of good faith.”
    “He took our wedding money?” I question in disbelief. Would he really have done something like that? Did he think I wouldn’t have questioned him about that at some point?
    “Didn’t you ever notice it was gone?”
    “I never even thought about it Luca,” I answer honestly. Money was the furthest thing from my mind at that point. “My husband was dead. I just assumed my parents or his went through it and took care of it. There was money in my bank account, I just assumed. I guess I just didn’t care.”
    “I told him not to go,” he tells me, leaning back in his seat. “That it was a bad idea, I told him to get on the plane with you, enjoy the honeymoon, and worry about it when he got back. But he was afraid it was going to somehow spill over onto you, that they were going to come looking for him and get to you. I couldn’t convince him otherwise, and I’m not so sure that he was wrong. It got to the point that I was a little scared for your safety too.”
    Chills run through my body at the thought of how I could have possibly gotten caught in the crossfire. I might have been in danger too, and I guess I can understand why he felt like he had to at least try to go and smooth things over. I remember the conversation that we had that morning at the hotel.
    “He told me you needed a ride home. That’s what he said, we fought about it.”
    “Everly, I didn’t stay at the hotel with the rest of the wedding party that night, I went home. He told you that so he could get away.”
    “I blamed you,” I tell him softly, for the first time feeling badly for feeling that way toward him.
    “You’re right to blame me, I should have done something. I told him I’d meet him at the park, so that I could be there in case he got into any trouble. On my way there I called his dad, and I filled him in. He had known there was a problem but had refused to get involved until then; he thought it was just an immature game Tyler was playing until I told him just how serious it was. He said he’d give Tyler the money, the whole amount, he just asked that I get to him in time. Stop him from meeting with the bookie.”
    “But you didn’t make it in time,” I say softly, choking back tears.
    His eyes are glassy when he shakes his head. “I didn’t make it in time. I’m so sorry, if I had done something sooner, said something sooner then…”
    “You don’t know that. No one can know that.”
    “Mr. West would disagree. He blames me, says I should have come to him before it all went to hell.”
    I reach out and put my hand over his, and he looks shocked by the physical contact, by the fact that I’m actually touching him. “He was upset, I’m sure he doesn’t feel that way now, Luca, he was your best friend.” I can’t believe what I’m doing right now, this is me comforting Luca, comforting the person I’ve focused on hating for years.
    He nods and I pull my hand away from him. “I tried to get Ty to tell you, but he didn’t want to hear it. He kept saying that everything was fine, that you didn’t need to know, that it was safer for you if you didn’t know.”
    I smile through the lump in my throat, the unshed tears that