When Adam set me back down onto my feet, and the both of us had ourselves put back together, I looked over Adam’s shoulder and saw that Michael was gone. I knew that I would have to deal with his reaction to seeing us when I got back to the other building, but at least there wouldn’t be a giant conflict here between the two guys.
Or at least I thought that there wouldn’t be.
I definitely should have known by now that my luck sucks way too much to make any assumptions about anything.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Michael asked Adam as soon as we had walked out of the storeroom.
Adam looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about? I’m getting supplies to bring back with us.”
Michael scoffed. “Oh? And since when does getting supplies equate to stuffing your cock inside Lisette?”
Adam chuckled. “Oh, well that part just sort of happened. But why the hell are you so upset about it? We’re on our way back now. Shouldn’t you be with Rob and watching over Naomi anyway?”
I stood at Adam’s side and could see that Michael was about to lose it. His face was turning red and his jaw was clenched. The fingers on his hand were tightening into fists.
Please don’t do this. Please don’t do this. Please don’t do this.
“Don’t ever dare to think that you can tell me what to do,” Michael growled.
“Easy,” Adam said as he started to see that Michael was on the edge of losing control. “What is your problem?”
“Don’t touch her,” Michael said hotly.
“Excuse me?” Adam asked, his voice growing heated and loud. “Don’t touch who? Because I know you’re not telling me to keep my hands off Lisette, right? Because she hasn’t chosen any of us yet and you’re no more important than Rob is or I am, right? And besides, even if you were pissed off? Lisette was the one that wanted me. I coerced her into nothing, before you start to take that route with your shit.”
This was going to get ugly, really ugly. I had to put a stop to it.
“Michael, stop,” I pleaded with him. “Calm down. You’re overreacting.”
Michael didn’t budge. “Tell him.”
I stared at Michael blankly. “You’re not serious, right?”
“Tell him, Lisette,” Michael said again.
“Tell me what?” Adam asked as he looked between the two of us.
I wasn’t going to open my mouth. I didn’t have to. The decision had been mine, and when I would tell the others was my decision as well. Michael was just jealous and angry, and I wasn’t going to let that bully me into doing something hurtful. I knew that I needed to tell both Adam and Rob about my decision together, in the time and place that I wanted. Being in the halfway house with Michael in a rage in front of us, was not the way that I wanted to have this conversation.
“No,” I said.
“Tell me what?” Adam asked again, clearly getting impatient.
“Fine,” Michael snarled. “Then I will.”
I panicked, thinking that he might actually do it. But when he did, I panicked even more.
“Lisette chose me,” Michael said. “She chose me, and not you or Rob.”
Rob came around a corner with a massive frown on his face. “Is that true, Lisette?”
I gawked at him and wanted to yell at him for eavesdropping. For thinking that he had the right to pry into private conversations. But what the fuck was I supposed to do now? Keep denying it? What could I do now except tell the truth? Adam kept asking me a specific and point-blank question.
So, it was either tell the truth or lie, and I wasn’t about to lie to him.
“Yes,” I said softly. “It’s true.”
As soon as I said the word, Adam looked as if he had just taken a bullet to the chest. He looked like he was in pain. I reached out my hand to him.
“Let me explain,” I said.
But Adam took a couple of unsteady steps backward and pulled away from me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. “When did you make this decision?”
I didn’t want to answer that question either.
“A while ago,” I said truthfully. “But I told Michael at the hospital.”
“You could have told me on the drive,” Adam said as his eyes became glassy. “Or even here in the halfway house, before we—”
His voice cracked and stopped short. “You could have told Rob too. But instead, you told no one,” Adam said. “You just made love to me and all the while I thought that maybe I would be the one you would choose. I let my body swell within yours, thinking that I was making love to you. But for you, it was just sex. Because you had already chosen, and you didn’t tell us.”
“No, Adam,” I said as I pleaded for him to listen to me. “That’s not it at all. I love all of you, and the choice of who to be with in the future shouldn’t affect all of us now.”
“Well it does,” he said as he turned to walk away.
“Adam!” I shouted.
