Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
He frowned. “Have you tried to stay up and look?”
I nodded, feeling my gut fall. “Yeah. That’s when I got the real feeling that I was being watched. Constantly. Because nothing ever happens when I’m awake and watching. But the moment I go to sleep—and that can only be when I nod off for twenty or thirty minutes—it happens. I’ve tried hanging out in the living room lying in wait multiple times. And it never fails. It always happens when I’m not paying attention. Like I’ve fallen asleep or get up to go to the bathroom.”
“Hmm,” Bain said. “Has anything happened when you’re out?”
“No,” Braxton snapped. “Why are you bothering him with this, Diana? It’s all in your head.”
I felt sick at the sound of Braxton’s voice.
He was a firm believer in the “you’re messed up in the head” department. He thought that I was imagining things.
But I wasn’t.
I really, really wasn’t.
“No,” I said. “Other than sometimes I almost feel like my car is being moved. Like, not far. But just a spot or two over.”
Bain’s eyes got intense, while Braxton broke in again with, “Do not bother him with your fake problems.”
I squeezed my hands into fists and snapped, “I’m not making it up, Braxton! It’s real!”
God, it felt real.
I felt like I was one step away from heading right in the direction of someone that was out to kill me.
I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t have irrefutable proof. But it was something that I felt in my soul.
Goddammit.
“She might have a stalker, bro,” Bain interjected. “Have you had it looked into? Gotten cameras put on your house? It’s not like you don’t have the money.”
“I’m not putting those eyesores on my house.” Braxton repeated the same thing he’d told me countless times. “She’s delusional. She needs to let this go.”
Fuck me.
I shut down after that, unable to forget or forgive him for dismissing my fears.
“I’m gonna go,” I said quietly as I gathered my purse. “I have a final to study for.”
“It’s entry-level math, Diana,” Braxton grumbled. “You don’t need to study. And if you do, you’re likely not going to make it very far in this stupid college journey you insist on following.”
God, sometimes I just wanted to throat punch him.
How could a woman like Hilary, so soft, sweet and nurturing, produce such different sons?
“Bro, you need to chill,” Bain said. “You’re overreacting yourself. She might have a valid reason to be scared, yet you’ve done nothing but write off her feelings. Gut feelings are real. You should maybe try to understand that.”
Braxton snarled something at him, but I was already heading out the door.
I passed Hilary and Holt, not saying goodbye.
I’d just made it to my car, which was now in the darkest part of the parking lot, when I felt the sudden change in air pressure.
I squeaked, ducked, but didn’t manage to miss the fist that was aimed at my face.
• • •
BAIN
“I can finish from there,” I said.
“Go for it,” she grumbled.
“I followed her out, wanting to get the rest of the story,” he explained. “The thing about my brother you should know? He’s weird when it comes to Luce.”
“Diana,” Sunny confirmed.
“Luce.” Bain rolled his eyes.
“Yes, Diana,” I snorted.
There was a reason behind my unwillingness to call Luce ‘Diana.’ And it all stemmed from the fact that my brother absolutely loathed the fact that I would call her Luce.
“Okay, continue,” Sunny urged. “What do you mean by weird?”
“Weird as in, he’s a fuckin’ douchebag with her. Everything Luce does is wrong. Everything Luce says has no basis in reality or truth. Do you know the definition of a narcissist?” I asked.
“Thinking very highly of oneself.” Sunny ticked off his fingers. “Thinking others are inferior. Lacking empathy for others.”
“Exactly. That’s my brother in a nutshell.” I paused. “But, when I say he was worse with Luce? I mean it. It was as if something in Luce’s personality just lit my brother’s soul on fire. I think he literally could not stand that she’s a better person than him. And he let it show in how he treated her.”
“Okay, so tell me the story,” Sunny advised.
• • •
I got to the parking lot, Braxton’s shirt tail in my hand as I all but dragged him out of the diner with me. The fact that my brother didn’t know how to take care of his wife was downright infuriating. Even worse? The fact that he had a good one and my brother couldn’t get past the fact that Luce was better than him to see that.
“Where’d she park?” I asked Braxton. “You shouldn’t ever let her walk outside alone when it’s dark. She’s fuckin’ terrified, bro.”
“She’s fuckin’ fakin’, bro.” Braxton rolled his eyes, luckily not trying to get away.
“She is not faking,” I corrected him. “She’s terrified. I saw the way the hair on her arm stood up when she was talking about it. Her eyes were dilated. Her heartbeat was racing.”