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Our family is extravagant like that.
Of course, Zach now owns the family business—as in, a multitude of companies I lost count of. Or more like, he manages it. I own fifty percent of its shares and have the ability to kick him out and become acting CEO if the attorney gig doesn’t work out.
Not that I would.
I chose not follow engineering for a reason.
The family business disgusts me more than food.
This land revolts me, too.
Every fucking thing in it.
As soon as I’m done with what I came here for, I’m leaving and never returning. I’m taking Nicole as far away as possible. To Mars, even, if they opened trips to there.
Talking to her on the plane was no different than pulling teeth and choking on my own blood while simultaneously flying to heaven.
Ever since last night, I can’t look at her without experiencing that crushing feeling of “I could’ve stopped it.” I can’t talk to her without tasting that bitter pill of “what-ifs” or seeing the hazy color of guilt.
But at the same time, I couldn’tnottalk to her, listen to her voice, make her laugh.
Fuck. I’ll never get used to the sound of her laughter. It’s like a fucking siren in a mythical story that I’m willing to let harvest my soul.
And the fact that she can still laugh is similar to squeezing my own heart with sharp nails.
So I did more. The whole fucking seven hours. I didn’t let her sleep, I got her talking about the years she spent raising Jayden on her own, and the story of how she found Lolli.
On her balcony, pretending the flat was her house.
Sounds like her.
The cat came with us, naturally, because both Nicole and Jayden threw a tantrum about leaving her behind.
Lucky little shit.
Anyway, talking to Nicole gave me a sense of peace I didn’t even dream of having since the day she left my life without looking back.
She can be oddly sarcastic and fluent at talking back any chance she gets.
And I was wrong. It’s not the old Nicole peeking through.
Did I even know the old Nicole beyond the image she plastered for her mother and stepfather’s sake?
Did I even see Nicole when she was deliberately leaving me lollipops and letting me be the one who had taken her virginity?
Or did I only see my fucked-up prejudice of her?
Last night, after I put my plan in motion, I couldn’t sleep. So I rewound every single interaction I’d had with her since that day she nearly died because of fucking peaches.
And every line I thought was set in stone is getting blurry, undecipherable.
And bloody confusing.
But I’ll deal with that.
After I deal withhim.
The man who’s been living on borrowed time since the day he fucking touched her.
