Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
“I love you,” he said.
I nodded a little.
“Baby, I love you,” he repeated.
I opened my mouth but nothing would come out but a little sob that I pulled back. Tommy’s expression dropped. He let go of me and I dropped limply onto the pillows. He left the room, slamming the door.
I’d promised him just this morning that I’d always say it back. I failed him.
Sarah was tapping my shoulder. I jackknifed up in bed, gasping.
“Sorry, Chiquita; you been sleeping three hours. Tommy has to go away on business. I need to pack a bag for him, he asked me to tell you. He’s in the office if you wanna go say bye. He says he’ll be gone a few days.”
I put my head back on the pillow and pulled the blanket up over my head. I didn’t fall back asleep; I just sort of laid there. I heard her leave a few moments later.
I didn’t know where Tommy was going and I didn’t care. Whatever. Him away instead of here meant I wouldn’t have to endure his mood swings, endure his wrath without the protection of his necklace.
14
Five Days Later…
For five days, I stayed in the bedroom other than to make trips to the kitchen, the Ms. Pacman machine, and back. I read, watched TV, and played games online. I’d gotten my period for four days and now it was gone. I got a big zit on my chin that was now pretty well near gone, too. My knees were almost healed, my throat no longer had a bruise (not on the outside but I suspected I was internally scarred for life from it).
I was raging for sugar or something comforting other than ice cream, anything but ice cream, but Sarah had no other junk in the house other than sugary cereal, which was bizarre because she was a sugar hater but purchased several boxes of cereal with the word “Sugar” in a huge-ass font on the box so I threw myself headfirst into said sugary boxes of cereal, using them to drown out the emotions about my life, my parents, my future, my relationship. Sarah brought me food. Sometimes I ate it, sometimes I didn’t. I woke up every night several times. I think I was looking for him, but I wouldn’t allow myself to acknowledge it.
I ignored Sarah and the four guards at the house. Yeah, he’d left me here but doubled the security. Twice a day, at least, Sarah asked me if I’d checked my phone and I’d always say that it was charging. It was plugged in on the nightstand but turned off. I didn’t want to turn it on because I didn’t want to know whether or not he’d messaged me. If he had, I didn’t want to read them. If he hadn’t, I didn’t want to know either because that’d make me consider the fact that he hadn’t bothered to message me. Stupid girl.
Yesterday, Sarah had said that Tessa and Lisa showed up to visit me, but I feigned a headache and made her get rid of them. I missed Luc’s baby shower. I knew Sarah went. She came up to tell me she was going but didn’t invite me. I suspected Tommy didn’t want me leaving the house, anyway. And what good would it do for Tommy’s family, friends and everyone related to the Ferranos that I hadn’t met yet to meet Tommy’s fiancée, a member of the walking dead?
After five days, he came back. The door swung open and there he was. I was in bed with my laptop playing Texas Hold ‘Em poker online with fake money, a lot of fake money as apparently I was some sort of poker savant (ever since losing my shirt, literally, at strip poker to him). My hand was inside a box of Sugar Crisp. It was 11:30 at night. I was in sweats, a messy bun in my hair. I’d had a shower that morning, but I didn’t even brush my hair, just shoved it up.
He dropped his suitcase on the floor and threw his jacket on the chair in the corner by the window. He folded his arms and stared at me. I glanced in his direction and looked back to my screen. I unceremoniously shoved another handful of the sticky cereal into my mouth and pressed the button to fold from the game on the screen and licked my fingers. The tension level in the room shot up to near nuclear as he spoke, no roared,
“Where the FUCK is your engagement ring?”
My blood ran cold.
Suddenly he was in my face, the cereal and the laptop swept off the bed onto the floor.
I looked at the nightstand where the ring sat and then up to him. His eyes landed on it and then he picked it up and shoved it on my sticky finger. I made a painful squeal and swallowed hard. My heart thumped painfully in my chest and in my ears. His face was distorted into a snarl.