Our Broken Love (Angels of war series #4)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

PENELOPE

It's at six o'clock the next morning when I get the call of nightmares. It's Maggie and she wants to let me know she has feelings for my boyfriend.

I can't say it's a shock to hear her admit it, because I have thought she liked him for a while now, but that doesn't mean it didn't send me into a spiralling mess.

There's so much history there. It drives me to insanity, so I pick up the phone.

I call her back and she answers right away. "You say he slept over at your house the other week. Did anything happen?"

She doesn't even hesitate. "No."

My lungs deflate of all air. It's impossible to breathe. "It didn't?"

"I'm not about to sleep with a drunk man," she says like she believes she could in the first place. "But it could of turned out that way. Max got handsy, especially when I was putting him to bed."

Or maybe not for the fact he has a girlfriend either? And she put him to bed? What the fuck?

"Max wouldn't do that to me."

She laughs. "You don't know him. Not like me. There was a sea of women before you. Christ, you have no idea what he was like."

"No there wasn't. Why are you lying?" I ask,

"Lying? Penelope... how silly are you? The man is fucking gorgeous, he could have literally anyone. You obviously don't know about all the drunk one night stands I picked him up from, do you?" she snaps back.

No. I don't really think it appropriate for Max to share that bit of information with me considering it's before we were a thing and really quite hurtful.

My eyes fill with tears, chest growing tight. "Why are you so horrible to me? I never did anything to you."

"Because I don't like you with Max. You're not good for him. You trigger him," she says out of the blue.

My fingers grip the phone. "You know nothing about our relationship, Maggie."

She laughs. "I know more than you think I do. I know he wasn't sure about you in the beginning. We had long chats about it. Max was going to break up with you before you slept with him."

"We slept together before we were even a couple so I know that's a lie," I snap back, hating that she dragged that piece of private information from me. "You have no idea what I'm going through right now. I can really do without this."

She huffs. "We all have shit to deal with. I'm not having the greatest time of it either."

I'm so tired. Burnt out from all of this drama.

"Have you ever slept with Max, Maggie?" I ask her outright. Her constant need to medal shows a higher level of feeling.

The pause she gives is worrying, then she sighs. "No. Our relationship wasn't sexual when he introduced me to Derek. I just cared platonically. The level of alcohol he consumed scared me and after going through the same thing with my dad, I wanted to help him. Derek did too, but he died and now there's just me. Things shifted somewhere. My feelings aren't small. I'm in love with him."

I knew the alcoholism was there before Derek died, but I don't know why I always assumed his death to be the bigger trigger when it's clear his problems ran deeper than I first thought. The Military. It's extremely hard to get a peep out of him about his time in the army, but what he has shared is harrowing.

"And what do you plan to do with these feelings because I'm here to tell you that you need to back the hell off. That's my boyfriend you're talking about and it's disgusting you've felt this way so long and not let him know about it," I respond, voice shaking.