Page 125 of The Heart Breaker

“Has he done this before?”

She glances back at me and chews on her lip, but she doesn’t answer, and my pulse starts racing.

“Soph,” I say, my voice turning hard. “Don’t lie to me.”

Her gaze drops to the floor and my stomach drops with it. God, I feel like I’m going to be sick. “He’s… pushed me a few times, but…” Her eyes lift to mine, shining with tears that hit me like a punch to the chest. “Not like this.”

I let out a shaky breath, my fists clenching beside me, wanting nothing more than to drive over there and punch him until he can’t hurt anyone ever again. But I know I can’t. I need to be here for Sophie. Need to behave and do right by her. She needs me and I can’t let her down… again.

There’s a part of me that wants to call Aurora and wants her to come over so I can feel her presence beside me, which always seems to calm me down, and it makes my stomach turn. BecauseI still want her. I still want to hear her voice and feel her hands on me and let her tell me what to do next, and that just makes me angrier. Makes me feel weak. Makes me feel like the biggest idiot alive.

Because I shouldn’t want to call her.

Not when she’s the reason I never got custody of Sophie.

I never liked Chase. He was a rich prick who walked around like money made him untouchable. But I never really had an issue with Aurora. Back then, she was just his girlfriend. His hot, mouthy girlfriend who was always at his games, flicking her hair over her shoulder, and occasionally sending a chirp our way. Other than that, she barely existed to me.

Until that night, when I saw his hand wrapped around her arm and the way she flinched.

I wasn’t looking at Chase Johnson anymore. All I could see was my dad. Every slammed door. Every bruise on my face. Every night Sophie hid in her room while I stood outside it feeling fucking useless. Every time I’d been too small, too young, too late to do a damn thing.

I just lost it.

One second he was standing there, and the next he was on the ground with me on top of him, driving my fists into his face.

I didn’t stop.

Couldn’t.

Not until someone dragged me off him and the cops were cuffing me and shoving me into the back of a car while my chest heaved and blood filled my mouth and I still wanted to get free and go back for more.

And when I looked up and saw the look of disgust on Aurora’s face staring back at me, I knew she’d been the one to call them.

It didn’t matter what he did. Didn’t matter that I was trying to protect her. All that mattered after that was that I was theviolent one. The guy with the temper. The guy who got into a physical altercation and therefore clearly wasn’t fit to take custody of my sister.

So Sophie stayed at home with the same monster who just hit her.

The pressure in my chest builds so fast it makes it hard to breathe, and I squeeze my eyes shut, dragging both hands down my face, but it doesn’t do a fucking thing. If anything, it only makes it worse, because now all I can think about is how stupid I’ve been. Letting Aurora in. Letting her matter. Letting myself get soft enough to forget, even for a second, what that night cost me.

I should’ve never let it get this far.

Should’ve kept her exactly where she belonged—out of my head, out of my bed, out of my life.

Instead, I let myself want her. Let myself trust her. Let myself fall in love with the sound of her laugh and the way she looks at me and the way she feels in my arms.

And for what?

So I can stand here with my sister crying in my apartment.

Fuck that.

Fuck the way she got under my skin. Fuck the way I let myself forget. Fuck every kiss, every night, every second I spent acting like any of this didn’t matter.

It mattered.

It cost me Sophie once already.

I can’t let myself get distracted anymore.