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I look up from the mat and straight at Vito, and something resembling guilt flickers in his brown eyes.
“If you must know where he is, he left this morning. Took an early winter break. I guess when your father is who he is, you can do whatever the hell you want?”
“He left?” I speak the words out loud unintentionally. Even saying them makes me flinch. He left. I won’t lie. It hurts. The truth cuts me clean down the middle.He left?Without telling me.
Not that he owes me anything. I should be happy he’s gone, that I no longer have to worry about him hunting me down to have a conversation neither of us is ready for. Instead, it feels like a piece of my soul has been ripped from my body. There’s a gaping hole there, and I have nothing to fill it with.
Whiplash hits me full force when my sudden sadness becomes anger, but not at him, anger at myself. I should rejoice, but in a strange way, knowing he’s gone now makes me miss him.
It’s fucked up. I shouldn’t miss the person who has a habit of making my life completely miserable, but I’ve grown used to his presence, his piercing gaze, and Jekyll and Hyde emotions. Now I’m lost, a life raft drifting at sea with no sense of direction.
“I get the sense you aren’t happy about him leaving?”
I don’t want to come off as a bitch, but I can’t help but lash out. “Can we—I mean can you—not pretend like you care. No one cared about me before you came along, and no one will care when you finally realize that paying me a single lick of attention is bad for you. I’m the plague, a leper. Do yourself a favor and pretend I don’t exist like everyone else.”
Vito’s features twist with irritation. “Like I told Rossi, I already know all there is to know about you, Aspen. Everyone knows who you are, and you’d have to be stupid or living under a rock to miss the mayhem your father has caused.”
“Don’t talk about my father,” I hiss, my hand tightening into a fist.
I know better than to try and fight someone twice my size, but Vito is looking like a good punching bag right about now. Vito seems nice, but so does a dog before it rips off your hand.
“Why don’t you take your own advice and do yourself a favor.” He takes a step toward me. We are toe to toe. Leaning down, he stares me straight in the eyes. “Quinton might seem vicious, but there are worse animals roaming this kingdom.”
I wrinkle my nose at him. I’m not sure if he is threatening me or warning me, and honestly, part of me doesn’t want to know. With Quinton gone, any chance of protection from Matteo ceases to exist, so if Vito tried to hurt me, I am screwed.
Yes, the deal was off before, but I knew he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me. I was learning that while Quinton was a monster, it was only him that could bring me to my knees.
“Are you threatening me?”
“What would you do if I was?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly, while biting the inside of my cheek.
A cheeky grin splits his face at my reply. “All I’m saying is watch your back.”
After that, I can’t stop thinking about what he said and whether he was trying to warn me or threaten me. If he wanted to hurt me, he could, but he doesn’t give me Matteo vibes. Vito is definitely the type to get revenge with violence, knives, and guns, but I doubt he is into abusing women or rape. He doesn’t take me as that type, but I’m not the best judge of character.
My body aches by the time the class finishes, while Vito is just breaking a sweat. I already hate him.
After showering and changing back into my clothes, I head straight to the library. I am desperate to talk to someone, and Brittney is as close to a friend as I have. I walk, though it’s more like a run, down to the library, only to be greeted with closed doors.
She never closes the library, no matter what. Something must have happened.Oh god, what if Phoenix got to her?I’m both worried and shocked by the sudden change.
I press my hand against the heavy wooden door, willing it to open. The library is my safe place, and Brittney is my friend. If I lose either of those things, I’m not sure I will survive.
The realization that I am completely alone finally hits me. No one will come to my rescue if something bad happened. I am more alone than I have ever been in my entire time here. Quinton is gone, and so is Brittney. The two people that kept me afloat are absent from my life, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.
I look down the long, empty corridor. I don’t know what is going to happen next, but all I have is myself, and for right now, that will have to be enough.
