His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 194

Olive’s POV

The silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity, JT still kneeling with the ring box open, Brenda staring down at him with tears streaming down her face and an expression that made my chest tighten with dread.

“Brenda?” JT’s voice was getting smaller, more uncertain. “Please-say something. Say yes. Say you’ll marry me.”

“JT, stop,” Brenda’s voice cracked, breaking through the moment like glass shattering. “Please, just-just stop.”

JT’s face went through a series of expressions-confusion, disbelief, dawning horror-as he processed what she was saying.

“What?” he whispered. “Brenda, I don’t—”

“I can’t,” Brenda said, and those two words seemed to physically hurt her to say. “I’m so sorry, Jonathan. God, I’m so fucking sorry. But I can’t marry you.”

The room was so silent, so quiet for a second that I could almost hear the sound of my heartbeat.

I watched as JT stood up slowly, his legs looking way too shaky for someone whose physique usually screamed strength, whose body was normally so confident and sure of itself.

But right now, in this moment, he looked like he might actually collapse.

“Jonathan, please-” Brenda started, reaching out toward him, but JT stepped back before she could make contact, putting physical distance between them like her touch might actually burn him.

“Why?”

The word came out raw, broken, barely more than a whisper but somehow louder than anything else in the room.

“Why? You don’t love me? You don’t?”

His voice was getting louder now, more desperate, and I could see tears forming in JT’s eyes even as he tried to blink them away, tried to maintain some semblance of composure even though everything inside him was clearly shattering.

“No, JT, baby, that’s not it-” Brenda’s own tears were streaming down her face now, black mascara running in devastating tracks that ruined her carefully applied makeup. “God, I love you. I do love you. That’s not-that’s not why I can’t-”

“So what, then?” JT demanded, and I’d never heard him sound like this before-so broken, so lost, so utterly destroyed. “What is it? If you love me, if you want to be with me, then what’s stopping you? Is it-if you’re not ready, that’s fine. I can wait. I’m sorry for trying to push you, I just thought—”

“No, it’s just ” Brenda cut him off, her voice choking on sobs. “It’s not that. JT, you are so perfect. So good. So talented and caring and everything anyone could ever want and I don’t deserve-”

She stopped mid-sentence, and I watched as her face did something complicated, something that looked almost like guilt.

Like she was carrying some terrible secret that was eating her alive from the inside.

“You don’t deserve what?” JT asked, taking a step closer to her now, his hands reaching out like maybe if he could just touch her, hold her, everything would somehow be okay. “Brenda, what are you talking about? You deserve everything. You deserve the world.”

But Brenda was shaking her head frantically, backing away from him, and the movement was so panicked, so desperate, that it made my own heart start racing.

“No,” she whispered. “No, you don’t understand. I didn’t—I should have told you. I should have told you before any of this, before you planned all of this, before you—”

“Told me what?” JT’s voice had gone quiet again, but there was something dangerous in it now, something that spoke of terrible understanding beginning to dawn. “Brenda, what should you have told you?”

The room fell silent except for the sound of Brenda crying, and I realized I was holding my breath, waiting for whatever confession was about to spill out.

I watched as JT, still standing, looked at Brenda with so much hope mixed with fear, like he was clinging to the possibility that whatever she was about to say wouldn’t be as bad as he feared.

But I knew better.

I could see it written all over Brenda’s face-whatever secret she’d been carrying, it was going to shatter everything.

Before Brenda could find the words, before she could force out whatever confession was lodged in her throat, I heard something that made my blood run cold.

The sound of a door opening.

I turned, my whole body going rigid, and watched as two people stepped into our private dining room- people who absolutely should not have been here, people whose presence made no sense whatsoever.

My mother, Diane, looking elegant in a dark dress that might have given the designer sleepless night to tailor.

And Grayson.

They stepped through the door looking confused, like they’d been expecting to find an empty section of the room or maybe just didn’t realize we were here.

“Oh my, Olive-” my mother started, her eyes going wide when she spotted me. “What a coincidence-you’re here too?”

She stopped mid-sentence, her gaze sliding from me to Brenda’s tear-stained face to JT standing there looking absolutely destroyed, clearly trying to piece together what the hell she’d just walked into.

“Mom?” I managed to whisper, my voice coming out strangled and confused. “Grayson? What-what are you guys doing here?”

And that’s when I remembered…remembered the hostess mentioning another couple who’d also booked this exclusive space, remembered that we’d be sharing the room but supposedly wouldn’t notice them.

I just hadn’t imagined that other couple would be my own mother and her boyfriend.

My eyes darted toward the section of the room I hadn’t paid much attention to before, the area separated from ours by what I now realized was a fairly transparent partition….meant to give the illusion of privacy while still technically being one large space.

How the hell hadn’t I noticed Grayson’s familiar back earlier? When I had grabbed the chocolate bar and was too engross to mention or notice.

How had I been so focused on JT’s proposal that I’d completely missed the fact that my family was sitting less than twenty feet away?

The man my mother loved.

The man who was a part of our family.

JT was pacing now, his hands pulling at his hair, and I could see him struggling not to completely lose it.

“How long?” he demanded, turning to face Brenda. “How long has this been going on? How many times? Was it-God-was it while we were together? While you were telling me you loved me?”

Brenda was crying so hard she could barely speak, her words coming out in broken gasps.

“It was-it was one time. I swear. It was a mistake. I was confused and stressed and-”

“Don’t you dare try to make excuses,” JT snarled. “Don’t you fucking dare try to justify this.”

I finally found my voice, though it came out weak and shaking.

“Brenda, how could you?”

She turned to look at me, and the guilt in her eyes was so overwhelming I almost couldn’t stand to see it.

“Olive, I’m so sorry. I never meant-I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. It just happened and-”

“It just happened?” I repeated, my voice getting stronger, anger finally breaking through the shock. “People don’t just accidentally sleep with other people’s family members, Brendal That’s not something that just happens”!”

My mother was still staring at Grayson, her face a mask of barely controlled fury.

“Is this true?” she asked quietly, like she hadn’t just screamed at him, like maybe she wanted to give him a chance again, like maybe this was a dream or some misunderstanding.

And this time, somehow her calm tone was more terrifying than if she’d been screaming. “Did you sleep with her?”

Grayson’s face had gone red, and I could see sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool temperature of the room.

“Diane, it was a mistake. It didn’t mean anything. It was one moment of weakness and I’ve regretted it ever since-”

“That’s not what I asked,” my mother interrupted, her voice dropping even lower. “I asked if it was true. If you fucked my daughter’s best friend. Yes or no.”

The silence stretched on for what felt like forever, and I watched as Grayson’s face went through a series of expressions before finally settling on something that looked like defeat.

“Yes,” he admitted quietly.

And just like that, everything fell apart.