Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
She moves so fast, she’s a blur, and I back up as she flies at me, stopping directly in front of me. I stare down at her, searching her eyes, seeing anger, fire, and disbelief.
Which just makes me feel nothing but disbelief too. She didn’t click? But she asked me outright. What the fu—?
Her hand collides with my face, snapping my head to the side, jarring my neck. The burn is instant and intense, the sound ear-piercing, and I blink, shocked, keeping my head and eyes low, not wanting to see the rage in her. Rage I deserve.
But I must face my wrongs and my fears. I don’t know what I expected from this conversation, but the blinding anger pouring from her was not it. I’ve never seen her like this. I slowly, cautiously, lift my head, and the moment I see her eyes, I know another is coming. She doesn’t know what to do, what to say, so she’s lashing out. She doesn’t want to hurt me. She’s not that kind of human.
I lift my hand quickly and catch her flying palm just before it meets my already flaming cheek, but she wrenches herself free and comes at me with both hands, this time balled, hitting me over and over on my chest, pound after pound as she screams and yells.
And I stare at her, taking it, shocked to my core.
I really have made her crazy. Turned her from a level-headed young woman into a deranged, irrational female.
Irrational? Brother, you’ve decided her future. Trapped her.
But how can she be trapped if she wants to be with me?
I don’t know how long I stand in the middle of our bedroom, naked, being hit repeatedly. My upper body is numb.
Ava eventually gasps, pushing both fists into my pecs, her head coming to meet my chest. She’s drained. I’m about to pull her in for a hug, hold her, apologize, when she thrusts me away and bursts into tears, trembling.
I’m back to staring again. Back to being shocked. I prefer being used as a punchbag than seeing Ava cry.
“Why?” she screams at me, arms flailing.
“You were ignoring it, Ava,” I say calmly, staying exactly where I am, respecting her need for space. “I need you to acknowledge this.” And she’s refused. “I needed to spike a reaction from you.” But this? This, I never anticipated.
“I don’t mean why you’ve told me,” she yells, sniveling, roughly wiping her runny nose. “I knew! I mean why the fuck did you do it?”
Why? Isn’t it obvious? It’s not justified, I realize that, but she knows me. She knows how intense my feelings are for her. She knows I will do anything to keep her. But still, again, nothing can justify it. “You make me crazy.” I gulp, swallowing the lump in my throat. “You make me do crazy shit, Ava.”
“So it’s my fault?” she asks, outraged. “My pills started going missing only days after you took me.”
Took her? She makes it sound like I kidnapped her. That she didn’t want me. But I can’t challenge her. I have to let her vent, let her say her piece, and take it like a man.
Her red-rimmed eyes pour with tears. I can’t watch. “I know,” I whisper, staggering back a step when she charges into me and roughly yanks my face to hers. She looks psychotic. It’s as if I’ve dislodged a blockage to her brain that was stopping her from considering exactly what’s happened.
“You don’t get to evade your reasons for this,” she hisses in my face. “You’ve taken it upon yourself to dictate my life.” Her fingers apply pressure on my face, and it hurts. Everything hurts in this moment. “I don’t want a fucking baby,” she screams. And that hurts the most. She doesn’t want kids? “This is my body! You don’t get to make these decisions for me. Tell me why the fucking hell you did this to me!”
She needs me to say it? “Because I wanted to keep you forever.” That’s my truth.
Her hold on my face loosens. “You wanted to trap me.” She steps away, appearing and sounding calm all of a sudden. But I feel her energy as well as I feel my heart beat for her.
“Yes.” I look at my bare feet, ashamed. Always. But it didn’t stop me when I was hiding her pills. Not the first time, and not the last time.
“Because you knew I’d run when I found out about your business and your drinking problem.”
“Yes.” Like you might run now. Like you might run when you find out about my true life before you walked into my office. When you find out I’m the reason everyone I’ve ever loved is dead.
“But I came back after I found out about The Manor and the alcohol problem,” she says, still calm, still even. Getting everything into place. Trying to understand. I have a horrible feeling in my gut that nothing I say will make a difference. “Yet you still took my pills when I replaced them.”