This isn’t Kai’s fault, but he’s constantly here, helping me through it, and while I am so grateful, I also have deep fears about being left.
“Quinn, I have nothing to hide from you. Go through my phone,” he says, but it isn’t that.
I don’t want to go through his phone. I trust him completely, knowing he’s never hidden anything from me. His honesty is what drew me to him in the first place.
“I know that dick did a lot of shit to you, but I never will. Everything that is mine is yours, Quinn, including my heart.”
What the fuck?
This guy is one in a million and somehow, flying across the country and over an ocean, I found him.
“The moment I saw you on that beach, my life changed. I couldn’t not meet you, make you mine and treat you the way you deserve to be treated. That asshole has no idea what he’s missing, no idea how amazing you are, but he’s never going to find out because you’re mine.”
I listen to his speech, my eyes once again welling with tears, but he’s built a confidence in me, in us, that I needed so badly.
He reaches for me, pulling me into his arms, his lips colliding with mine. The way he touches me, the heat of his body, the way he whispers my name against my lips—it all makes me weak, and the line between lust and love begins to blur.
I feel the contact of his body everywhere, and when he pulls back, his hand wrapping around the back of my neck, his fingers tracing tiny circles, I’m tired of letting Sean control everything.
With Kai, I’m safe—safe to do what I’m about to do.
And that is, poke the bear.
“I want him out of my life,” I hiss, angry that my past and my present are bleeding together. I want it all to go away so I can live my happily ever after here on Maui.
“I know you do,” Kai replies soothingly.
Taking Kai’s phone, I begin to take pictures: the broken chair, the shattered phone, the tire marks from where he drove up onto the grass, too reckless to care about anything but himself.
With Kai following behind me, I head up the stairs to the house, grabbing pictures of where Sean punched the side of the house, his bloody knuckles leaving marks everywhere they touched.
“Do you mind if I text these to my lawyer?” I ask Kai, that heavy feeling of anger beginning to leave me.
My emotions have been a mess for so long—one minute holding back tears, to sobbing over the littlest things, to being so angry I can feel it everywhere.
I hate it.
I want this divorce over.
I want Sean out of my life forever.
“Yeah, no worries,” Kai replies as we walk into the house, and I find her number.
Typing out a message that I hope finally gets my point across. I’m not signing the NDA, and these pictures are proof of his volatile and intimidating behavior.
* * *
Me: I’m not signing the NDA. Conversation over. Please see the attached pictures.
Nancy: Understood. I will let Sean’s team know, but until things are finalized, please lay low.
* * *
I let out a condescending laugh, turning the phone so Kai can see her response. Rolling my eyes, I can’t even believe I hired this woman to so-called defend me. I get that she’s being paid by Sean, but still.
“She’s a piece of work. Lay low? What the fuck does she think you’ve been doing? Fuck, that pisses me off.” I can hear the frustration and anger in his voice, and I totally know how he feels.
It’s been my life since I moved here: constantly trying to avoid drama, but I’m over it.
