The Brighton Effect
The Truth About Love Duet, Book 2
C.M. Albert
FlowerWork Press
Contents
Playlist
The Brighton Effect
Quote
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Three
Brighton’s Letter
Olivia’s Letter
Epilogue
Ryan’s Letter
Read Next
Faith in Love Sample
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Books by C.M. Albert
About the Author
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement (including infringement without monetary gain) is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
THE BRIGHTON EFFECT
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction
Copyright © 2020 by C.M. Albert | FlowerWork Press
Cover: Cover Me Darling, LLC
Cover Photographer: Regina Wamba
Editing: Dot and Dash, LLC
Proofreaders: Lynn Mullan and Denise McGhee
Paperback/Hardback Internal Formatting: Alt 19 Creative
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.
Created with Vellum
For Heather, my emotional support person during the writing of this duet.
You’re even better than Canada.
These songs spoke to my heart while writing the conclusion of this emotionally difficult duet. I bolded the songs that really make me smile and think of Olivia, Brighton, and Ryan’s untraditional love story. Don’t even get me started on “Just Breathe.”
“Afterglow”—INXS
“Be Your Man”—Rhys Lewis
“Best I Can”—American Authors & Seeb
“Best of You”—Andy Grammer
(with Elle King)
“Between Me and the End of the World”—Adam Hambrick
“Bleeding Love”—Leona Lewis
“Chances Are”—Vonda Shepard &
Robert Downey Jr.
“Control”—Zoe Wees
“Don’t Let Me Go”—Tyler James Bellinger
“Falling”—Harry Styles
“Feeling Good”—Michael Bublé
“Flicker”—Niall Horan
“Here Comes the Sun”—Glee Cast
“Holy”—Justin Bieber
(Feat. Chance the Rapper)
“Hurting”—Kygo & Rhys Lewis
“I’m Yours”—Alessia Cara
“It’s About Us”—Alex & Sierra (Interlude)
“Just Breathe”—Pearl Jam
(Live at Austin City Limits)
“Let Me Take You There”—Plain White T’s
“Love Me Like You Do”—Alex Goot
(feat. Sam Tsui)
“Mad at You”—Noah Cyrus & Gallant
“Me Because of You”—HRVY
“Not Over You”—Will Champlin
“Remedy”—Adele
“Ruin”—Shawn Mendes
“Shine On”—Sawyer Fredericks
“Stay with Me”—Sam Smith
“Sun Comes Out”—Decco & Leo Stannard
“Sunshine”—Schuyler Fisk
“Surrender”—Natalie Taylor
“Survivin’”—Bastille
“Tell Your Heart to Beat Again”—
Danny Gokey
“Today’s Not Yesterday”—Shane Filan
“Up”—Olly Murs (feat. Demi Lovato)
“We’ll Be Fine”—Luz (acoustic)
“When I’m With You”—Westlife
“You’re Just My Luck”—Adam Ezra
The Brighton Effect
The Truth About Love Duet Book 2
Brighton Kerrington
Olivia North was everything I always wanted. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew nothing would stop me from having her. Not even her husband, Ryan. In the end, I got her. Maybe it wasn’t all to myself, but Olivia was worth every sacrifice I made to be with her.
What started as a chance to help Olivia heal from the loss of her babies, ended up changing us all forever. Because there wasn’t anything Ryan and I wouldn’t do to make her happy—including sharing her love. Forgiveness and healing are strange bedfellows, but when it comes to love, nothing is off limits.
But everything comes at a cost, and there are key moments that end up changing our lives forever—altering the trajectory we were once on. Before all is said and done, the three of us end up paying more than we ever bargained for. Could our unorthodox love survive the hands of fate, or was it all just the beginning of the end?
“sometimes
the first step to
getting it right
is to own the
possibility that
we had it all
wrong before.
that is what will
separate you from
so many.
because we live in
a world where there
is a certain shame
associated with
admitting being
wrong. everyone wants
to be right, if only
in their mind.”
—JmStorm
Prologue
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 to 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 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 it would solve all our misery, like a crutch through the thick pain and muck of heartbreak.
It worked for a few years—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 any woman, I’d 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 on 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 past few 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 in flames.
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 were 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’d 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. 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.
Chapter One
Olivia
IT WAS HARD to heal when I was spending most of my days finishing a job with the man I needed just as badly as my husband. It was torture for us both. I’d been upfront with Brighton about my lie, which only made me feel that much worse about my betrayal with Ryan. But I didn’t want him to accidentally hear from Brighton that we’d slept together alone—without him.
The fight we’d had was no excuse, nor was the way Ryan yelled at me or slammed his hand against the door where I stood, shattering the tiny glass windowpane. He wasn’t generally a physical man, and I was confident he would never hurt me. But these were not normal circumstances, and no one expected the jealousy that came with sharing me. You would’ve thought we’d have seen that one coming, but Ryan was a confident man by nature. Then again, he’d never had to share any part of me before Brighton.
The intimacy he’d handled well. It’s when I fell in love that things got tricky.
“Almost done?” Brighton asked, rounding the corner. His blond hair was getting a little longer on top, and he had to run his hand through it to get it out of his eyes.
There was just something about the man—the way he filled a room the moment he entered, commanding attention. It was like trying not to look directly at the sun when someone says, “Look how beautiful that sunset is!” It’s damn near impossible. Not only had I looked at the sun, but I’d reached for it, trying to hold the whole damn thing in my arms before it slipped away.
I tucked the last napkin under the place setting and stood back. “I think so. I just have a few more pieces to unload and a mirror to hang in the living room that I couldn’t do alone. Do you have a minute to help?”
“Sure,” he said, wiping his forehead with his mint-green T-shirt.
I snuck a quick glance, longing for a part of him I had no business having anymore. But you can hardly share every part of your body, heart, and soul with another human being and just expect it to go away overnight. No more could I purge Brighton from my system than the babies I’d miscarried. I felt lost and hollow without each of them.
I focused on the task at hand, holding the ladder as Brighton checked the markings with his level, then screwed the anchors into the wall. I remembered the feel of every hard plane of his body, and my insides reacted when his calf flexed from the strain of standing on the ladder and positioning the heavy mirror into place. Brighton was raw, s
exual power built from hard work on a jobsite every day—and my body still responded every time we were close.
But it was more than that.
I missed everything about him. Our soul-baring, late-night talks in the yard. The fun evenings we shared with Ryan by the firepit. Watching the easy way they played basketball, more like best friends in a bromance than two men craving the same woman. How easily he’d fallen into step with our lives this past summer—bringing out the playful side we’d somehow lost over the past few years.
But every day since the lie, Ryan found excuses to distance himself from the jobsite and from his friend. Then it turned into longer days at the university once he’d gone back, finding every reason under the sun not to be home alone with me.
Maybe he did know. My stomach revolted at the thought of telling Ryan later.
“Excuse me,” I said, grateful that Brighton was done and off the ladder already. I ran to the downstairs bathroom and threw up my lunch.
Brighton knocked at the door not even two minutes later. I was too weak to answer. I knew I wasn’t taking good enough care of myself. My stress was causing me to lose weight I couldn’t spare to part with.