This time, I’m the one who takes a sip from his bottle of vodka, and then I point it at him. “Once you get your girl, bring her home to meet us. Your mother will love her.”
“That is, if she wants to be with me.”
“There’s an easy solution for that, son.”
“Which is?”
“Don’t give up until she does. That’s what I did with your mother.”
Speaking of my beautiful wife, I better finish my business in this godforsaken country so I can get back to her side.
Being physically away from Lia is no different than breathing through a straw and biding my time for the moment I’ll have her in my arms again.
Jeremy thanked me for not giving up on her, but I’m the one who’s thankful that she never gave up on me either.
My son and daughter were always meant to leave, but Lia is the only constant in my life.
My wife.
My obsession.
Mine.
41
CECILY
Ican’t stop crying.
Every time I try to, my heart squeezes, and my eyes fill with tears until I think I have none left.
But I do.
I’ve been roaming the streets aimlessly for a few hours. My feet hurt, my muscles scream, but I don’t stop. If I do, then I’ll think of what happened tonight.
Of the pain that’s breaking my heart real slow, wreaking havoc from the inside out.
I don’t want to think about the cause of that pain. How Jeremy looked at me or the words he said to me.
Most importantly, I don’t want to think about how he seemed like he was going to kill me.
I’m the foolish one for laying my heart on the ground for him just so he could stomp all over it and leave me as this empty shell.
My feet come to a halt in front of the shelter. It’s closed, and no one is here besides the security inside.
Unable to walk anymore, I lower myself to the front step, wrap my arms around myself for some comfort, and lay my head against the cold wall.
I should probably call an Uber to take me back to the dorm, but I don’t want Ava and the others to see me like this. Hell,Idon’t want to see me like this—broken, stupid, and desperate for someone who will never trust me.
For someone who hurt me so badly, I can’t find the pieces he broke.
I fetch my phone and stare at it through my blurry vision, but the battery dies and it goes black.
With a groan, I hold my head between my hands. I have a headache that’s been made worse by the throbbing emotional pain from tonight.
Jeremy and I were doing so well. After the few days we spent with my parents, I was sure he was it for me, that no one else would be able to stimulate my mind, body, and soul the way he does.
People repress their animalistic needs, but Jeremy nurtured them in me. He encouraged me to go after what I want, to ask for it, and fall deeper into it.