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“Even if the prize is something you desperately want?”
****
“HELIOS SAYS YOU CANtalk here privately,” MJ said as she opened the door to the club president’s private study. As Sabastian and Bobby walked into the room, she added, “All the rooms here are soundproofed, too, by the way.”
Bobby did her best to smile. “Thanks, MJ. We won’t take long.”
MJ nodded before quietly closing the door.
Bobby immediately erupted, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She began to pace, anxious and spitting mad at the unexpected turn of events, and it was all thanks to her so-called friend. She shook her head, still having a hard time believing that Sabastian had actually – oh my God, how could he?
She threw her hands up in frustration. “This isn’t the movies, Sabastian! Ican’tbe the grand prize for your stupid race.”
Sabastian settled on the couch, his posture completely relaxed as he stretched his arms on the back of the couch and crossed one leg over the other. Observing his friend’s frantic pacing, he said mildly, “Please don’t accuse me of something I’m not guilty of. I never said anything about you being grand.”
In answer, Bobby simply took the throw pillow from one of the armchairs and threw it at him. “I’m serious, you ass.”
Sabastian caught it handily. “And I’m just as serious. You should bethankingme,moro mou.”
“Oh, really? Pray tell why,” she said sarcastically.
“Because I’m giving you the chance to get closure without having to sacrifice your pride,” Sabastian answered simply.
Bobby collapsed on the space next to Sabastian.
Closure.
She had a feeling she would become hysterical.
Only Sabastian...only Sabastian had known how hard the past year had been because they had both been the same. While the whole world thought Bobby Granger had been able to move on with Sabastian Gabris by her side, the reality had been uglier and more pathetic.
Leandro’s betrayal had broken her, cut her so deeply that she had sunk into a severe depression that required medical treatment. And it was at the private clinic where she was receiving treatment that she had met Sabastian, who had been broken like her.
“I don’t need closure,” she whispered.
Sabastian’s voice was gentle but firm as he said, “You do. You know you do.” Bobby was like a sister to him, and the protective brotherly part of Sabastian was tempted to take back what he had said and whisk her away from harm. Because that was what Leandro Christopoulos was to her – danger of the greatest kind.
Unfortunately, Leandro Christopoulos was also the only one who could make her happy in a way that no other person could.
Love was crazy that way, a double-edged sword that could kill if it remained unrequited and unsheathed.
Grimly, he remembered the day he had met Bobby in the clinic, the days where she would only stare sightlessly for hours as if she had already died and was only waiting for death to claim her physical body. And the other times, he would hear Bobby in the counseling room, crying. For hours she would cry, unable to speak a thing because her pain was so great it couldn’t be encapsulated in words.
“This is your chance for closure,” Sabastian repeated. “The only way you can finally stop hurting inside. Because we both know you’re hurting still.”
Slowly, Bobby covered her face. Darkness flooded her world and she welcomed it, wishing she had the power to keep it that way. Darkness was comforting in its emptiness somehow. There was nothing to be happy about, but there was nothing in it to hurt her either.
“I don’t want it. I’ve learned to cope.”
“Coping isn’t enough—-”
She shook her head, looking at him desperately. “It’s enough forme. So please, Sabastian, don’t make me do this. I don’t want to lose myself again.”
Quietly, he said, “You haven’t really found yourself, Bobby. All you are now is a shell, and sooner or later, that’s going to crack.”
Chapter Six
“She’s been crying.” Helios made the quiet observation as he and Leandro watched Sabastian Gabris and Bobby Granger walk out of his study. Her eyes were faintly swollen, her face pale.
