Page 4 of Fated to Her

“Stay away from me,” I tell him. I can feel myself cracking, the edges crumbling and breaking away as everything floods me, drowning me. Tears pour, and I can’t stop them as I hyperventilate, choking on my inability to control my emotions.

Eli steps closer, and I step back, my hands fisting and unfisting as I regather some sense of control. Then he moves too close, and I lash out, hitting him. Adrenaline hits me. I smack any part of him within reach.

“I fucking hate you! I hate you! You did this. You caused all of it, caused fucking everything,” I scream as I hit him.

It is like hitting a wall; no impact on him, but my hands and knuckles are throbbing to their own beat as they bruise from the repeated blows.

The pain is welcoming; anything to stop the raging storm in my head that is smashing through my defenses.

“Addie, calm down,” he says, grabbing me and crushing me against him to stop me from hitting him.

I go limp, dropping my weight to escape his clutches, but his grip is too strong as I try to breathe around my crushing anguish.

“You destroyed me! You all fucking destroyed me! You took everything,” I sob, thrashing, trying to break free of his grip.

“I know. I know, love,” he says, refusing to let go.

I thrash more before eventually growing tired. I don’t even care if people can hear or see. I don’t care anymore. I’m done with everything and everyone. I just want it to end, to fucking end, so I won’t have to live with it anymore.

“I’m sorry, Addie. We never wanted it to be this way, never wanted to see you hurt because of us,” Eli says, kissing my hair as my body trembles with sobs.

My legs go out from under me.

“I got you, Addie. You don’t have to suffer alone anymore,” he says, walking to the car and placing me inside. I sit numb.

I can’t even feel the seat beneath me, just cold and numb. He pulls my seatbelt on, clipping it in before shutting the door, walking to the other side, and climbing in. The engine roars to life. The car tears out of the parking lot and onto the road.

He’s talking to me, but his words may as well be gibberish for all the sense they make to me. I stare at my hands covered in Troy’s blood, panic hitting me.

I’m going to jail. They will lock me up for what I did.

I rub my hands on my pants, trying to rid them of his blood, my skin stained.

“Addie… stop, love,” Eli says, grabbing my hands in one of his.

“Did I kill him? Oh my god, I’m going to jail,” I say, panicking, remembering the caved-in parts of Troy’s face.

“Calm down. Cyrus will take care of it. He won’t let him die, okay?”

“But I hurt someone. They will lock me up for what I did,” I say, trying to pull my hands from his grip.

“You are not going to jail, Addie. We wouldn’t let that happen. And Cyrus will take care of the footage and their memories, so just calm down. We won’t let anything happen to you,” he says, squeezing my hands.

Goosebumps raise on my arms, my teeth chattering, and Eli lets my hands go before fiddling with the heat and turning it up. I place my hands in front of one of the vents trying to warm up when I see Eli removing his jacket while using his legs to steer. He removes it and hands it to me, and I slip my arms in, pulling it closed; it smells like him, and I feel my body relax.

“Bit better?” he asks.

I nod, staring out the windshield. “Are you taking me home?”

“I will take you wherever you want to go.”

“I want to go home. I want to go back to my mother’s.”

His jaw clenches before he nods.

“Can we swing by our place first to clean you up? Addie, your mother will panic if you go home covered in blood.”

“But you will take me home, right?” I ask, my heart rate skipping and thumping violently in my chest at the thought of being trapped with them.