Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Matthew sprints out of the elevator door as soon as it opens on my floor. He rushes over and must see that my knuckles are swelling; something I didn’t even feel. “Viktor!” he shouts when he sees. Walking over to the door, he pushes it open. “What happened?” he asks, coming in with Max behind him. They look around the apartment, and then he must see what’s on the coffee table. He walks over to the table and picks up the little baggies. “What the fuck is all this?”
“I don’t know how it happened,” I say, rubbing my face. “It was like I was out of my body, and I just watched it snowball out of control.”
“What did?” Max asks, and he just looks at me.
“Mika, Kevin, and Chris. It was supposed to be just to visit, and then the next thing I knew, women were at the door, and then the drugs came out,” I tell them, rubbing my hands over my face. “I can’t place blame on them.” I shake my head. “It’s my fault I allowed this to happen.”
“Motherfucker,” Matthew hisses. “Where are they?” he asks, looking around.
“I kicked them out.” I look at him and wonder if I should tell him, if I should tell him I put Zoe in this situation. “Zoe showed up.” His eyes go big, and it takes Max a second to step between him and me. “She’s gone,” I say the two words that hurt me more than anything in my whole life. More than letting everyone down, more than seeing how disappointed my parents were when I told them just how much I was actually using. “She showed up, and it was seeing her that made me see through the haze. See through the fog.”
“Where the fuck is she, and did they fucking touch her?” Matthew says between his clenched teeth.
“Of course not. Do you think I would have allowed that?” I look at them, and Max looks at Matthew and then at me. “I swear on my life I will never ever let anything happen to her.”
The three of us stare off against each other, and none of us says anything because the door buzzes again, and I walk over and let Jeffrey in. No one says anything until Jeffrey comes into the room, and he looks at me.
“What is going …?” he says, his voice stopping when he looks around. “Holy shit,” he says, rubbing his hands through his hair. “How much did you …?”
I shake my head. “Nothing.”
“You know we’re going to piss you,” Matthew says, and I nod.
“You can piss me right now,” I tell him. “I didn’t fuck touch it.”
“We need this shit cleaned up,” Max says, and then the buzzer buzzes again. “It’s like grand central station in here.”
“It’s Evan,” Matthew says, and I press the button.
“We need to get rid of all of this,” Jeffrey says, then looks at me. “You sure you want to stay here after we clean it? You can get a room somewhere.”
“I’ll be fine,” I tell him, and he goes to the kitchen and grabs some cleaning supplies, and Evan walks in. He doesn’t make eye contact with me; he just looks at Matthew.
“I’m here for you,” Evan tells Matthew. “Just so you know.”
“Is she okay?” I ask him, knowing why he said what he did.
He shakes his head. “Is she okay?” The sarcasm oozes out of him. “You tell me. Is it okay that you have to pick her up when she’s sitting on a cold cement sidewalk? Is it okay that I have to carry her in the house because her legs give out and she is going to collapse?”
“Evan,” Matthew says, and I see him taking his phone out and sending out a text.
“I had to carry her to the car,” Evan tells me, coming closer to me. “I had to watch my wife hold her in the back seat like a child.” He pushes me. “I had to fucking hold her up because she couldn’t walk.” The image in my head is too much to bear, and I let him push me again. “I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone. I promised her that I wouldn’t fucking tell you but …”
“But what?” I ask him, almost afraid of what he has to say.
‘But you deserve to know,” he says and then looks over at Matthew. “She’s home. Zara is with her.” Then he slips his jacket off. “It’s a good idea that it stays here with just us. Zoe is a proud woman, and the last thing she would want is to know that we feel sorry for her.”
“Allison is going, too,” Max starts, and Evan shakes his head.
“Then you let Zoe tell her,” Evan says. “Now let’s clean this shit up so I can go home.” He looks at Max, then at Jeffrey who is now wearing gloves so he doesn’t touch anything.