She glances at me and quickly looks away as if pained by the mere sight of me.
“I love you, baby girl.”
I glance at Gilbert, “We have a deal.”
He nods.
“Matt, get the fuck out before the police get here. You’re lucky. You get to live today. I’ll be in contact. You fucking owe me,” Gilbert barks.
I throw my jacket over her legs and do the hardest fucking thing I’ve ever done in my life; I leave. Leaving my heart and soul in that room. As I walk out to the street looking for a cab, I’m having trouble accepting her words. No, she’ll be back, I tell myself. When she comes to pick up her things from my house, I’ll make her see how much I love her, how much I need her. Then she’ll change her mind. This is temporary. Then I hear a little voice in my head.What if it’s not? What if you’ve lost her?Did my son just cost me everything good in my life? Mercy is everything good in my life. Without her it’s all just gray, none of it matters.
My phone has been ringing for a while. I climb into the cab and give the driver my address and answer my phone since it’s Xander.
“What?” I answer.
“Where are you?”
“In Stroudsburg on my way home.”
He sighs, “Are you alright, Liam?”
“Nope,” I answer and hang up. I’m not in the mood to talk about this shit in the back of a cab for this asshole to listen in on. I slide my ringing phone back in my pocket. I shouldn’t have answered it the first time. When we pull into my driveway, I immediately spot Xander sitting on my porch.
I get out of the cab and walk up to my porch ignoring the giant man sitting there. I walk around him and go inside and of course he follows me. Why can’t he take a hint? I don’t need him in my space, not today.
“You can go.”
“Not leaving,” he says flatly.
I walk straight to the kitchen and grab a glass and pour some whiskey. I hand it to Xander and then take a swig straight from the bottle. This is not normal for me but after the day I’ve had, fuck it.
“We found her.”
A relieved look is written all over his face. “Is she alright? Does she have injuries?”
“No−I mean yeah, I think physically she’ll be okay. We walked in on Nash almost raping her. Two seconds later and we would’ve been too late. Emotionally, I’m not sure how you recover from something like this. That spark in her eyes was gone.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose, “Jesus.”
“He had his fucking dick out, half an inch away. I’ll never get that shit out of my brain.”
He takes a long gulp of his drink. “So where is she now? And why the hell aren’t you with her?”
“It’s over between us.”
Slamming his glass down, he reacts, “Liam, tell me you didn’t just break up with her after what she’s been through.”
I shake my head, “Of course not, dickhead. She ended it. Mercy asked me to leave her alone. After what she’s been through because of me, it’s the least I can do. I’m letting her go.”
“Can you do that?” He asks with a shocked expression.
“Man, I don’t have a choice. It’s the only thing she asked of me. You should have seen her. I just have to.” I take a big gulp of whiskey from the bottle, “I can’t be the one to cause her more pain. I will do what she wants even if it fucking kills me, and it just might.”
He takes another drink of his whisky, “Why don’t you come stay with me and Isabella for a bit?”
“I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”