Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Colt,” I whisper.
“Leave,” he growls. “Leave this fuckin’ house and everything that comes with it. I never want to see your fuckin’ face again.”
His words are a hit to my soul, and I reel back, shocked.
“I didn’t ... It wasn’t me who hurt you,” I say, my voice choked up.
He steps toward me, leaning down until his face is inches from mine. “Every time I look at you, I see her. You have made my life nothin’ but hell since you showed up. Get out. Fuckin’ disappear and never return.”
I don’t know why, but his words are soul crushing.
They hurt me in a way I’ve never been hurt before.
The tears I was holding back come rushing down my face as I raise my hand and I slap him, I slap him so hard the sound echoes through the trees. He stumbles back, anger flashing across his features.
“Go to hell,” I rasp, my fingers trembling.
Turning on my feet, I rush back toward the house before he hears the broken sob leave my throat.
The moment I’m behind closed doors, I drop to my knees and wail. I wail because it hurts, it all hurts. Everything I thought I ever knew about the person I loved most in this world was wrong, and I can’t go back and ask her why. I can’t demand answers. I can’t get her to tell me why she never told anyone what she did, or how she could have walked away from the scene and left a woman on the side of the road, dead. I can’t stop picturing her beautiful face and remembering the way we used to laugh. Her soul was pure, I truly believed that, and now I’m left with the hatred of the man she walked away from.
The man I can’t help but care about, even though everything inside me is begging me to hate him, because it would be easier.
I feel pathetic, like a rotten failure. Not only have I started to develop feelings for a man who gave his entire heart to my aunt, but I had to deliver the worst news possible and because of it, he hates me. He looks at me the way he wants to look at her; he is taking out on me, what he wishes he could deliver to her. All of it is landing atop my shoulders, and I don’t know if I can hold it any longer.
Damn you, Chloe.
This was never my burden to wear.
It was yours, and you hid from it.
Now, I can’t escape.
“OH, HONEY.”
Lifting my head, I see Bonnie walking toward me.
I’m sitting by the fire, a bottle of vodka in my hand, just staring at the orange flames. I’ve cried so much there is nothing left but a heavy ache that won’t leave my body. The alcohol isn’t helping, it’s only enhancing the pain that I can’t seem to escape from. I want to leave, just like he demanded. I want to pack up and never look back, but I can’t do it.
Even though I’m angry at her, I made her a promise.
And I, for one, keep my promises.
Bonnie sits down beside me, her hand extending out. I hand her the bottle, and she takes a sip.
“I figured you told him, because he’s currently over there causing destruction.”
He is?
“I had no choice. He deserved to know.”
My voice is empty, bland and monotone.
“You’re right, he did. I’m guessing he didn’t take the news well.”
I laugh, empty and bitter. “He took it out on me, like it’s my fault she hurt him. He wants me to leave. He can’t stand the sight of me.”
“That fucker,” Bonnie growls. “I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”
“There is no point,” I say to her, taking the bottle back. “He feels what he feels, who am I to tell him it’s wrong?”
“No, no, I won’t hear this. You didn’t do a single thing to that man. If he’s angry, that’s fine, but you had nothing to do with the choices Chloe made. Don’t you sit back and take it.”
“Right now, I don’t think I have the energy to even look him in the eye ...”
Bonnie scoots closer. “Do you have feelings for him?”
“What does it matter?” I mumble. “He’ll never see me as anything but the burden left behind. He will never look at me for who I am. He’ll always see Chloe. The love of his life.”
Bonnie reaches for my hand and squeezes. She can’t say anything, because what is there to say? She knows I’m right. To him, I’m nothing more than a shadow behind the woman he thought was the world. He loved her more than he’ll ever love another human, and I stupidly let him in. I should have never slept with him, I should have never helped him, I should have done this house and left.