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“We worked together,” he choked out. “I turned her down so many times, but now she’s…” His sigh stole what little peace I had left. “Maybe tragedy brings people together, right? Reminds you what’s important.”
The dark hid my shaking hand, but it wouldn’t hide the tremble in my voice.
“What the fuck would she see in someone like you?”
If my back hadn’t been to him, I might have noticed the anger in his eyes. If my back hadn’t been to him, he might have seen the darkness that pooled in mine.
“What?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle— not that there was much to do when I was so close to the edge. My head tilted just slightly, just enough for the boy to catch my grin, and I pretended every nightmare I’d ever had wasn’t playing in the back of my head. His hands on her, his tongue lapping her excitement of his fingers, her writhing beneath him, darkened my senses completely.
He’s lying.
With the utmost care, I repeated my question. “I said, what the fuck would she see in someone like you?” His hands balled, as though the question was enough for him to launch at me, but Tristan stayed pinned in place.Coward.“Pretty sure if she looked hard enough, she could find another college dropout whose daddy paid for his job.” My body shuddered with another mistake, with another step into my grave. But when I watched Tristan recoil, I’d never felt so good. “Get the fuck out of here,” I hissed. “Now.”
Whatever satisfaction came with watching him squirm was gone when the man fell out the door. Tristan rushed back to his car the same way he entered, but this thing wouldn’t go with him. Thisthingwouldn’t go with anyone— not anymore. When I worked to pack up a pair of her shoes, this thing whispered that maybe Tristan hadn’t been lying. That maybe he had touched her, that she had called out for him, that she hadn’t needed me as much as I wanted to believe she needed me. Though, it wasn’t the thought of her touching him that settled so deeply into my marrow. It was the awful fear that came next.
He could love her better.
And she knows it.
Where this kid, thisstranger, had risked life and limb to be able to grab her mother a photo, all I had done was isolate her. Where thisnobodycould give her security, all I’d ever be able to give her was snarls and second thoughts. He wouldn’t have kept her locked away on some god damn hunch becausehecould love her within reason.Tristanwould let her live a normal life.
Could I say the same for myself?
