Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
He leaned over the couch to press a kiss to my lips. “I need a shower,” he told me. “Then, I’ll spend some time with you.”
There was something wrong. He wouldn’t meet my gaze, and he looked a bit pissed.
“Axel,” I softly called out. My heart knocked hard in my chest, but I swallowed down my fear. He wouldn’t abandon me, right?
He turned to look at me. “Yeah, sweet girl?”
A breath of relief left my lips at the familiar nickname. “Are you okay?”
He clenched his jaw, his eyes flashing with barely restrained anger. He looked at Julian. “Did you talk to her yet?”
Julian shook his head. “Thought it might be better to break the news with both of us here.”
Axel nodded. “Give me a minute.”
He disappeared into his room. I looked worriedly up at Julian. “Julian, what’s going on?” I asked him, my heart beginning to pound hard in my chest. He knew I couldn’t handle waiting like this.
“Let’s just wait for Axel,” he told me.
I shook my head. “Julian, you know I can’t take the suspense,” I reminded him.
My chest began to ache, and I reached up to rub the heel of my hand over my heart. Julian drew me back into his arms. “Shh, baby girl. Axel, hurry the fuck up!” Julian barked, making me jump slightly in his arms.
Axel came out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a towel. “Oh, sweet girl,” he breathed when he saw my face. He knelt in front of me. “Julian received something in the mail today.”
Julian pulled a small envelope out of his pocket and silently handed it to me. “We’re right here with you, baby,” Julian gently reminded me. “If you need to cry, it’s okay to cry.”
I looked down at the envelope in my hands. Vincent’s messy scrawl was on the outside of it, and it was addressed to me. I swallowed thickly as I slowly opened the envelope with shaky hands, pulling out the small postcard-like picture.
On the front was a picture of Vincent and Desiree, and she was flashing her diamond ring at the camera as Vincent kissed her. My heart thumped hard in my chest as I slowly flipped the card over, reading the wedding invitation.
My eyes blurred with tears.
“The entire time that I was suffering, he was out here perfectly happy,” I cried. I tightened my fingers around the card, bending it and crumpling the edges. A sob ripped from my chest. “He never cared,” I sobbed. “Our entire friendship was what I always thought it was—some kind of fucking obligation to me.”
“No, baby,” Julian soothed as he wrapped his arms tightly around me. “I just don’t think he knows how to cope with all of it, so he distanced himself.”
Axel cleared his throat and shook his head. “Sweet girl, this is going to hurt like hell to hear,” Axel warned me. I turned my attention to him. He grabbed my hands in his, grounding me to the Earth, preparing me for his next words. “I went to go see Vincent—find out what the fuck is going on in his mind.” His eyes never strayed from mine even as my bottom lip trembled, and more tears slid down my cheeks. “I don’t think Vincent is going to be coming around anymore, sweet girl. He doesn’t want to know who you’ve become today.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that wasn’t all.
“What did he really say, Axel?” I demanded through my tears, my voice breaking.
“Baby—" Julian soothed, trying to keep me calm.
“No!” I screamed as I shot off the couch, stumbling slightly. Julian gripped my hips to steady me as he and Axel both jumped up to their full height. I ripped myself from his grip, my chest heaving up and down, the pure emotional agony of losing someone so close to me feeling like it was ripping me the fuck apart. “Axel, tell me what he said.”
He clenched his jaw. “No,” he told me. “Meghan, no. You don’t need to know.”
“I deserve to know!” I yelled at him through my tears. Julian reached out to grab me, but I stumbled back from him, not removing my eyes from Axel’s. “Fucking tell me, Axel.”
Julian thrust his hands through his hair. “Fucking hell.” He swung his murderous gaze to Axel. “Tell her, Axel.”
“Julian, no. It’s going to rip her the fuck apart.”
“We’ll deal with that like we always do,” he told his best friend. “Just tell her. She’s not going to let us fix this until she knows.”
Axel flexed his hands at his sides. “He said we’re too gentle with you, that we walk on eggshells around you. He said he doesn’t know how to deal with the person you’ve become and that he can’t be the kind of person you need now. When I told him you were on medication, that you were getting better, that you’re so much fucking stronger, he said the medication was only going to fuck you up more.”