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“August. Not here,” I whisper. Not in front of Marissa. Not over enemy territory. “We should go somewhere more neutral to talk—”
“We? There is no ‘we’!” he thunders, whipping around to face me. His eyes blaze as he flings my hand off him. “You aren’t a part of this. You don’t need to intrude, inserting yourself into goddamned everything. This isn’t your family, Elle, and it’s not your damn business.”
He might as well have struck me across the face.
Punched me in the chest.
Ripped my heart out and punted it.
I stumble back like I’ve been shot, pain clogging my throat, my vision blurring.
I can’t even speak.
Not when he’s just torn the veil from my eyes. Forced me to stop pretending we could ever be anything more than a lie—or that I have any place in his life that isn’t bought and paid for as a matter of convenience.
Because he’s right.
I’m not a part of this world.
It’s not my business.
I don’t belong here.
I don’t belong with him.
My chest feels like it’s caving in.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t be here.
Shaking my head, I falter back a step.
Deb steps forward, reaching for me. “Elle, Elle, he didn’t mean it—”
“No,” I sob out, shaking my head again and twisting away from her touch.
I can’t stand it right now.
Worse, I can’t stand to look at August because she’s the one saying he doesn’t mean it. Not him.
“H-he ... he does,” I stammer until I can’t.
God, I can’t do this.
I trip, my loose slippers tumbling off, leaving me barefoot against the concrete.
And I am the worst broken Cinderella imitation ever as I spin away from this soul-killing mess and run like I’m being chased by the cutting fragments of my own broken heart.
There’s probably something more humiliating than standing barefoot on a street corner in an oversized shirt from a man you hate, waiting for an Uber with tears running down my face, but right now I can’t think of it.
I haven’t run far.
Just far enough to get out of sight before a little common sense took over. I realized if I kept up like this, I was going to step on a nail or a little glass, and then it’d be just my luck to get tetanus on top of everything else going straight to hell.
So I took a side street where they wouldn’t see me and dug my phone out of the breast pocket of the shirt to summon a ride.
At least I don’t have to wait long, standing here like some kind of messed-up Victorian orphan child on the street corner.
