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“What do you mean? I am safe.”
“No. Not here you’re not. Not when my family are criminals…”
She stopped abruptly, pulling away so she could stare me right in the face. “Are you threatening me?”
“No!” I yelled, drawing the attention of a few of the guests around us. I glanced around, clearing my throat and smiling apologetically until their gazes returned to their own partners.
I snatched Cait up in my arms again and began moving to the music. “Of course not, Cait. I would never hurt you.”
“You’ve hurt me more times than I can count,” she muttered.
“I meant physically.”
She scoffed. “Aidan, if you think that every single cruel word you’ve flung at me hasn’t left a physical scar, you’re delusional.”
I sighed again. Why did every single conversation we had turn into an argument? We were like porcupines trying to settle into the same den… someone was always going to get stabbed. Which was exactly why she needed to go.
I just didn’t think I had the strength to make her.
I leaned into her, my hand on her back trailing up and down, and I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be soothing her or me.
“Okay,” she suddenly said, her voice soft and cracking.
I jerked back, looking down at her. “Okay what?
“Okay, I’ll leave. As soon as Bree is awake, I will pack up my apartment and go. You’ll never see me again.”
I stared at her in dumb silence, watching the tears misting her blue eyes. “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t-”
“Cait-”
Oh God.
I hated to see her in such pain. My heart was breaking with every word she spoke.
It’s for the best, Aidan.
She looked just like she had that night I’d rejected her after my father had become her guardian. Like she was paper I’d crushed up into a little ball and tossed in the trash. Like she was nothing.
But Cait wasn’t nothing, Cait was everything, and all I’d ever wanted to do was take care of her. I just wanted her to be safe…
But she didn’t look safe now. She looked broken.
The light was gone from her eyes. The fire had been snuffed out. I’d finally pushed her too far.
No.
The air burned in my lungs.
“No, Aidan. You win.” She pulled out of my arms, backing away from me. “You win,” she whispered again and swiftly left the dancefloor.
I stood there, my arms frozen in the position she’d left them.
Win…
No. This wasn’t winning. For either of us. There had to be a better way.
I wanted her protected from my world, but I had only been thinking about keeping her body from harm. Meanwhile, I’d been systematically tearing apart her soul. She’d always fought me. I’d believed I could never make her break, but she’d cracked… and I owed it to her to put her back together again.
