Saddle up

Chapter Thirty-One : We All Fall Down

Brant's POV

The shrill sound of my phone's text tone startled me awake. I groggily reached for it, my hand fumbling on the nightstand before I finally grasped it. The damn thing buzzed again, twice more, before I managed to unlock the screen.

Three messages from Cole. My stomach twisted with dread as I hesitated, bracing myself for whatever had just been sent.

The first message was an image. I clicked to download it, gritting my teeth in anticipation. It took a moment for my dinosaur of a phone to catch up, but when the image finally loaded, it felt like the air was knocked out of me. There she was—Jessica—sound asleep in a bed that wasn't hers, her hair splayed across the pillow. The white sheet barely covered her, and there was no mistaking that she was completely naked beneath it.

My heart sank into the pit of my stomach, the weight of it heavy and suffocating.

The next message finished loading: an audio clip. My body tensed, a knot of anger and pain coiling deep inside me. I clicked to download it, my teeth clenched so hard I could feel the ache in my jaw.

The first voice was unmistakable. Cole's voice. "Tell me you want me."

Then, Jessica's voice came through, soft, barely above a whisper. My chest tightened at the sound of it.

"I want you."

I could barely breathe. The words hung in the air, sharp, cutting into me. It felt like someone had just torn out my heart and stomped on it.

The third message: a video. I couldn't bring myself to watch it, but I did anyway, my fingers shaking as I clicked to download.

"Christ, no," I muttered under my breath.

I couldn't look away from the screen as the video buffered, but my mind had already snapped. She had slept with him again. After everything. After all that had happened between us. I felt like I was suffocating in the truth of it. The air felt thick, like the weight of the world was crushing down on me.

I never thought of myself as a quitter, but in that moment, I wanted to throw in the towel. I loved Jess—I still loved her—but maybe that would never be enough. As long as Cole was in the picture, there would always be a shadow between us. I didn't know how to fight that. I didn't know how to keep up with the chaos he'd created between us.

I had to accept it.

I'd gotten through the loss of Kelsey. I could get through this too. I knew it wouldn't be easy, and it wouldn't happen overnight, but I could do it.

But as much as I tried to convince myself that it would be okay, one thought kept gnawing at me. Jess deserved more than someone like Cole. He didn't love her. He didn't know how to. He loved the idea of having her—the control, the power of knowing she was there, on demand, whenever he wanted. To him, it wasn't about her. It was about possession.

As painful as it was, maybe Jess and I were done. But before I could walk away, I was going to make sure she knew exactly who Cole really was. He wasn't the man she thought he was, and I wasn't going to let her keep living in that lie.

I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, long into the night. The darkness around me felt suffocating, but it was nothing compared to the pressure I was carrying inside. By the time dawn began to break, I knew I had to do something. I couldn't just sit here and do nothing.

I went outside to feed the horses, the cold morning air biting at my skin as I moved through the motions, clearing the stalls and keeping busy. I needed to keep my mind occupied. Chase would be here soon, and I needed him. I needed his help to keep me steady, to keep me from doing something I might regret.