Because he knows what I will say, and I don’t want to show him that he’s right.
“You’ll hate me,” Kayden says with finality. “And I’ll hate myself because you hate me. And we’re going to tear each other apart.”
Aren’t we already? I think to myself.
I don’t get what he wants me to do here. We both agreed to this deal and it had all been fine . . . until it wasn’t anymore. I had always been hell-bent on destroying Jax, and that goal has never changed. I don’t understand why, on the day before the biggest fight of our lives, it strikes him as such a huge revelation.
He’s asking way too much of me. How can I let all that anger go, just like that? He doesn’t understand how it feels to have three years of your life ripped away by someone you used to love so fiercely. He doesn’t understand that the vengeful feeling has been festering inside me long enough that it’s way too late to be stopped.
“What do you want me to do, Kayden? Just forget about what Jax did to me and forgive him?” Impotent rage burns my throat as I wield my words. “Why should I? What has he done to earn my forgiveness? He’s done nothing but lie to me and fuck me and my sister up. You’re crazy if you think I’m just gonna bury the hatchet and get all buddy-buddy with him!”
“I’m not saying you should forgive him, Sienna,”
Kayden says, reaching forward. He drags a hand down my cheek, thumb stroking the skin and I lean into it, almost whimpering from being deprived of his affection during this argument. “But hurting him is not going to heal the pain that he inflicted on you. It’s only going to make it worse.
And I’m not going to stick around and watch you destroy yourself over this.”
The statement clangs through the parking lot, filling the space with dread. He waits for me to speak—to say anything, real y—but to his disappointment, I don’t. I simply can’t tell him what he wants me to say.
The flicker of relief he was holding in his eyes disappears, along with any inkling of hope. He drops my hand and huffs out a dry laugh as he accepts my silence as confirmation of the answer he’d feared all along.
“Got it,” Kayden says, wrenching the truck door open and climbing back in, giving me one last look. “Loud and fucking clear.”
I say nothing.
I merely watch him soundlessly as he drives off into the night.