by C. M. Albert
“Did you sleep with him?”
She placed her hand on the doorframe, pausing before turning back to look at me. Her body was rigid, but I saw the rise and fall of her shoulders.
“Truth, Liv. Did you fuck Kerrington behind my back without me?”
This time, I heard the gasp as loudly as if I’d just struck her.
She turned slowly, her eyes finally meeting mine. They were full of tears, and something else that I couldn’t read. Fatigue? Despair? Anger?
The room was deathly silent.
I would wait for her answer.
The truth was the only thing we could always count on between us at the end of the day. She took a deep breath, then squared her shoulders as she met my eyes.
“No, Ryan. I didn’t. Are you happy now?”
No.
She actually said no.
I closed my eyes as my heart slowly strangled itself.
“Yeah, Liv. I’m happy now. I finally have the clarity I need.”
Chapter 45
Olivia
THEY SAY PAIN ebbs and flows over time, until one day, you find yourself accidentally living in joy again. Then each step from there is a little bit easier. The end goal? Being back to normal, I suppose. Though, in retrospect, what even is normal? Maybe we’re all just living lies that no one else is privy to. Someone looking in from the outside at my and Ryan’s perfect life—with the white picket fence, the Cavapoo puppy, and the historic home in the city—would only see what we wanted them to.
What they wouldn’t see is the layers of secrets we’d started to create in a misguided effort to find joy again. You know how the saying goes—the truth shall set you free.
Here’s what I say: SCREW THAT SHIT.
I mean, seriously. Just when I was starting to bloom again, when I thought I was finally starting to feel joy—we landed in a bigger pile of manure than we’d started with.
And it all started with the fucking truth.
If Ryan had just left things alone—hadn’t pushed to know whether I found Brighton attractive, or whether I would’ve slept with him if we weren’t married—maybe our lives would be on a different trajectory.
Instead, the truth hadn’t set us free.
It had buried us even deeper until I could no longer see the light of day. Until telling the truth terrified me—because once the truth came to light, I was in jeopardy of losing the last part of my past, and the only thing at the end of the day that still meant something to me.
Myself.
The me I could look at in the mirror with a sure heart, knowing I was trying my hardest, doing my best, and living as closely as I could to love.
These are the thoughts that race through my head at three in the morning. Or when I’m in the shower, the scalding water never hot enough to burn all the memories away. But when I’m in my therapist’s office?
That’s when they finally come out.
All of them.
All the dirty secrets I’d kept locked inside over the summer.
Ryan doesn’t ask me for the truth anymore. In fact, we’d gotten rather good at going back to the way things were during the before. Only this time, the before is Brighton.
This time, the only truth pact I have is with my therapist, Dr. Paul.
And, yes, it’s the same man Ryan tried to get me to see months ago. He’d been right about so many things. The only thing that kept me from truly healing before were the secrets of my heart that I’d been too afraid to share. Now, after everything we’d been through, I had nothing left to lose.
They say the only way around suffering is to go straight through it.
Well, here I was . . . ready to march right in. Because I knew my joy was just on the other side of it. So, when my therapist asked me why the change of heart, I just smiled and gave him the truth.
“It all started with the Brighton Effect.”
If you fell head over heels for Olivia, Ryan, and Brighton’s complicated love story, and want to find out what happens next, flip the page to read the Prologue for The Brighton Effect.
We also have The Truth Pact Spoiler Group on Facebook, for those who want to dive a little deeper with other reads and spill the tea.
Order your copy of The Brighton Effect today.
The Brighton Effect
Sneak Peek
Olivia
THE FUNNY THING about a lie is that instead of making you feel better, the truth starts to eat at your soul, demanding you look in the mirror and face it. Until you do, everything in your life, and I mean everything, becomes centered around that lie—and what made you speak the poisonous words to begin with.
For me? It was nothing less than bone-splintering fear.
The lie? One simple word: No.
Before that, our eight-year marriage was built on love, respect, and most of all—honesty. When your relationship was born out of grief and slides even deeper into the darkness loss after loss, the only thing that can set you free is the truth. It’s your lifeline. Your only ray of hope.
Which was why we’d created a truth pact, Ryan and me. It was as sacred as our wedding vows, and maybe even more so because it came after the loss of our first miscarriage. How do you bear such grief? How do you go on? We naively thought if we were one hundred percent honest with one another, that would be enough. That would solve all our misery, like a crutch through the thick pain and muck of heartbreak.
It worked for a while—through another miscarriage. Until, finally, that fragile, false hope we’d shackled around honesty shattered after the loss of our daughter. Stillborn. The truth was, no words, no matter how honest, could bridge the hollow, gaping hole where my heart used to be. The loss of Laelynn obliterated me, until I became so broken, my husband was desperate in his attempts to reach me. To save me. To restore me to the woman he’d fallen in love with. Even if it meant sharing me. But when Brighton Kerrington entered our lives, the truth suddenly became a whole lot more complicated.
“And you fell in love with him?” Dr. Paul asked, reviewing my chart.
“I did,” I answered honestly. Because after that one lie burned hot across my tongue, I knew the only way out, was through. Through the darkness that caused me to lie to begin with, betraying myself and all our marriage stood for.
“And do you still love him?”
“I’ve never stopped.”
“How does Ryan feel about this?”
I lifted an eyebrow and glanced at my therapist. “How would Mrs. Paul feel if you fell in love with another woman?”
“Touché,” he said. “However, Mr. O’Brien would be pretty shocked if I fell in love with a woman, I have to say.”
His warm smile helped me relax. “Point taken.”
“Why don’t we stick to your marriage?”
I nodded, picking at the cuticle by my thumb. It was a nasty habit I found myself leaning on when I was uncomfortable. Which was often these days.
“Back to my question. How is Ryan handling all of this?”
“As well as you could expect. He went back to work and is finding excuses to be away from home more.”
“Do you think he’s avoiding you because he knows you lied?”
“I don’t think he knows,” I said quietly. “Not for sure.”
“Really, Olivia? You don’t think he suspects at all?”
I thought back to the subtle ways he’d changed over the last several weeks. How distant he felt, and how our lovemaking had gone from the best it’d ever been to almost nonexistent. It felt as if all the progress we’d made over the summer was disappearing just as quickly as the warm temperature that would soon give way to the bitter cold of winter.
“What would be the worst thing that would happen if you told him the truth?”
Dr. Paul was Ryan’s idea to begin with. Four months ago, I’d wanted nothing to do with him. Now, he was my biggest ally and staunchest supporter to heal and get things right this time. I’d failed so epically in handling my grief after losing my babies.
In fact, I still had work to do there. But we were tackling one fissure at a time. Because you can’t address the foundation when the upper floor is on fire.
My job was to put out the fire and pray that the damage wasn’t irreparable. Then address the unstable foundation my life was built on these days. I felt like at any moment, everything would come crashing down again, plunging me back into darkness.
“That he would leave me. That he would stop loving me.”
The words crawled over my skin like death itself. For all our troubles, Ryan was my soulmate. There was no two ways about it. Losing Ryan would be like cutting off my oxygen. I wouldn’t make it long without him. I wouldn’t want to.
The only problem was—Brighton was now wedged into my heart, too. It was so strong and palpable that I no longer felt complete without them both.
I know “they” say you should be complete all on your own. Here’s what I say: SCREW THAT SHIT.
Am I a complete and happy human being without a man? Well, sure. But who really wants to be alone? Not me. The only problem? Now that I’ve felt the warmth of Brighton being in my life, it was impossible not to want them both. That’s not something I’ve been able to share in those exact words with Ryan. Partly because he’s been stuffing down his own pain for so long, that I was afraid one more “truth” might send him overboard. But mostly, it was because I highly doubted his idea of happiness involved having an open marriage. The term itself left an icky taste in my mouth, but at the end of the day, that’s all it would boil down to. And Ryan deserved better.
Brighton did, too.
“You need to tell him the truth, Olivia. Your real healing won’t begin until you do. Though, I have to say, I’m proud of how much you’ve opened up since we first started working together.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I was in a place.”
“Oh, I remember,” he said and chuckled. “While I don’t agree with Ryan’s methodologies, you do seem happier and more capable of handling whatever comes your way. Including telling Ryan the truth and dealing with the fallout from that, Olivia. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
Was I? I wish I had the confidence in myself that Dr. Paul now had. They say the truth shall set you free. I guess we were about to find out.
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Afterword
Dear Readers,
Please don’t be upset with this cliff-hanger! When I was originally plotting out The Truth Pact, I had a certain outcome I wanted in my head, and these three kept changing things up on me, keeping me on my toes. Their grief and love were so deeply interwoven in their relationship, making it so much stronger than a “traditional” open relationship. This was never meant to be a ménage story. That’s not what The Truth Pact is about, other than the shared intimacy that arises from the three of them choosing to try to heal in this way together—and the fallout as a result.
I can’t say more about the future of their relationship, just that I’m sorry for having to split their story in two. But I couldn’t do it justice trying to rush the ending and cramming it into this first book. Too much healing still needed to happen. And as it turns out—everything I thought I knew about their story as the author was nothing at all like what was about to happen.
You see, Ryan, Olivia, and Brighton are so special to me because of how much they pushed me to step out of my comfort zone to tell their story the way they wanted it told—not how I’d originally planned, or how you might like to see it end. Theirs is a love story that will live on forever, and hopefully they’ll hold a piece of your heart too, as they have mine.
I hope you fall in love even harder after reading book two of The Truth About Love duet—The Brighton Effect. As always, reviews and recommendations are the best way to show a writer how much you enjoyed their book. They help more than you can imagine.
Mad love to each of you!
XOXO, Colleen
Special Support Message for Readers
As you can imagine, The Truth Pact was difficult for me to write because it’s so different from any of my other books. It’s all about THE FEELS, on every single page. My author tagline is “sexy and flirty, sweet and dirty” for a reason. But The Truth Pact has a whole different layer of complexity to unravel and was unlike anything I’d ever tackled. It was often gut wrenching for me to crawl into it every day—even as I couldn’t stay away from it—because Olivia and Ryan’s story was that compelling for me to write. I literally lived and breathed their pain and growth every time I dove deeper into their story.
That said, I knew I needed extra help to make sure I captured even a fraction of the grief someone may experience when they live through the losses that Olivia has. Luckily, my dear friend Erin offered to help me through some of the harder details that accompany the loss of a child due to stillbirth. Though I wasn’t friends with her at the time when she delivered her daughter, Kailey, I met her soon after while she was working through her grief and leaning on KinderMourn to help her through the worst of it. She was kind and brave enough to share some of the little, important details that parents suffering this type of loss might experience. Things that make Olivia’s experience even more real, and that I couldn’t have dreamed up on my own. For that, and her friendship in general, I am forever grateful.
If you are in Charlotte, North Carolina, KinderMourn is an amazing resource to reach out to if you have experienced the loss of a child. They can be found at: https://www.kindermourn.org. Additionally, they share a list of resources if you are a parent dealing with grief at: https://www.kindermourn.org/copy-of-grieving-parents. Just know there are many national organizations that can help so you don’t have to suffer alone.
I’d like to leave you with this special quote for all parents who have experienced the heartache of a precious, angelic stillborn baby. My heart holds yours in your loss with deepest love.
XOXO, Colleen
“You were born silent.
Perfect and beautiful.
Still loved.
Still missed.
Still remembered.
Every day.
Stillborn.
But still born.”
—Michelle Salisbury
Books by C.M. Albert
Arden’s Glen Romance Series
Faith in Love
Proof of Love
Visions of Love
Love in LA Quartet
Book 1: The Stars in Her Eyes
Consumed Series
Book 1: Consumed by Love
Stand-alone Books
Last Night in Laguna
The White Room
Cocky Hero Club Books
Mister Stand-In
The Truth About Love Duet
The Truth Pact
The Brighton Effect
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author C.M. Albert writes heartwarming romances that are “sexy and flirty, sweet and dirty!” Her writing infuses a healthy blend of humor, high-heat romance, and most of all—hope. When not writing, or kid-wrangling with her handsome hubby, she’s either meditating, kayaking, reading, hugging a tree, or asleep. But first, coffee. #TonyStarkForever
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