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“I won’t be done with you until you’re fucking buried six feet under.” He takes a menacing step toward me, and I brace myself for his fists to ruin Maria’s patch-up job. “You know, I always knew you were ruthless and gave a shit about no one but yourself, but I thought I was the one exception to that rule. I could care less about how your blood runs cold for the people around you, but me? I thought I was your friend. Your only fucking friend. She’s my fucking daughter, Gabriel.”
His words sting more than my open wounds. They strike with a velocity, and I jerk back in my chair. As if I don’t remind myself of that hard fact every single day.
“Anything? You going to say anything? I trusted you. I trusted you with her. How long have you been luring in my daughter, you son of a bitch?”
“It’s not like that—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” His laugh is cruel and cynical. “You’re talking to me here—your best friend since we were practically kids. I know you better than anyone. You expect me to believe you? When did it start? When did you start taking advantage of her trust? Her innocence—”
I shoot out of my chair, ready to match him blow for blow for insinuating I would ever dare take advantage of her. “Watch it,” I hiss.
He doesn’t back down. “I trusted you in my home. God, all the times I’ve trusted you with her. How fucking long?”
There’s no right answer here. Do I confess it was the day she turned of age when I finally allowed the inappropriate glances to slide off my wandering eye? Willingly accepted her flirtatious advances? Decided one day I would sell my soul for a taste of her forbidden beauty?
“WHEN!” Heath howls, cutting into my thoughts.
“Just before she left for school,” I reply.
Heath steps back. “You sick piece of shit. You stay the fuck away from her—”
“You didn’t need to come back here to remind me. Get the fuck out—”
Fuck!
That motherfucker takes a swing at me. My lips split back open, and I hiss.
“Why her? You can have anyone. Why…her?”
“Do you think I planned this? You think I chose to put my only friendship on the line?”
“You don’t give a shit about friendship. Why?”
“Same reason you had.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Why Violet?” He rears back to hit me again, but this time, I prepare to fight back.
“This has nothing to do with me.” His chest heaves, ready to land another shot, but I’m not giving him a chance.
“But it does have to do with wanting something so bad, knowing you can’t have it, fighting the demons inside that taunt you with right and wrong.”
“Why fucking HER!” His voice booms throughout my kitchen, cracking with emotion. I’ve had enough. I may have destroyed the only friendship that has ever meant anything to me, but along with that, I’ve also lost the only person I’ve ever…fuck…I ever fucking loved.
“Because she was this entity creating light in my dark world. You should know just as well as anyone what happens when you find something so pure, so beautiful, inside and out…it’s a struggle to walk away. I didn’t lay a single hand on her without her consent.” I wipe the fresh blood off my lip. “I didn’t choose her. Life did. The cruel fucking universe we live in decided for us.” A firestorm of anger and betrayal light behind his eyes. My voice is suddenly hoarse. “I knew the impact of my decisions and how my empire would crumble around me the day you got wind. And I hated myself for that. Hated knowing I was going to cause this, going to hurt you. I hate my-fucking-self for it, but I can’t stand here and lie to you and tell you I regret it. Not a single fucking second of it.”
He stares at me, the hatred in his gaze like a knife slicing my chest wide open. He shakes his head. “I won’t accept this. I can’t. Where is she? I’m taking her home.”
I didn’t expect him to. I always knew the end of us would be me walking away. “And you have my word. I’m done. I’ll stay away from her.”
He spits at my feet. “Your word means shit to me. But hear mine.” He stabs his finger at me. “If I ever see you near her, I will fucking kill you.” A sharp pain radiates inside my chest, an emotion too heavy and dark to describe. Loss? Regret? I want to rage. Tell him to fuck off. That she’s mine. But I won’t betray him twice. I’ll stick to my word. I’ll never see her again. “Now, where is she? I want to get the fuck out of this house and get you out of my life.”
