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I’m everywhere.
Everyone knows.
Everyone.
Oh my God!
The need to run fills me with every word and I find my feet shuffling back a step for every one he takes.
I keep moving. I move past the map, the clothes, the sex toys, and my laptop with my Favorite Fans content folder open, exposing my dirty little secret in high-definition for him to see.
The phone falls from my hands, but I ignore it. I don’t stop moving until I’m in my bathroom, fleeing the devastation, leaving behind the shattered remnants of a life once cherished. The small room stretches out, a narrow passage to a world unrecognizable, to a future uncertain.
What will happen now?
The door to Roman's room is open, a faint sliver of light spilling into the darkness. I take one step inside, seeking refuge in the remnants of innocence. The air is heavy with the scent of our childhood, of forgotten dreams and whispered secrets. I close my eyes, willing the past to wash over me, if only for a moment.
God, what I wouldn’t do to be back in his home, his new home, his room, his bed.
His arms.
I never should have come here. Out of all the things that could have happened, that I could have found when I arrived after so much time, it wasn’t this scenario in the forefront of my mind. Never this. Not even close.
To be honest, I’d figured he’d moved on and given Mary’s note, maybe he has. But why would he tear apart my room? What was he looking for?
Maybe I should just leave.
Before I can even process the thought, something in my room crashes and my head whirls around just as Isaac appears in the bathroom. I look up, meeting his eyes, and suck in a sharp breath.
Everything I once loved is gone, leaving nothing but an unrecognizable version of the man I used to know behind.
He advances on me, backing me into the counter. My hands shake as I reach up to press him away. “Isaac,” I murmur, my voice cracking. “Talk to me.”
His lip lifts in a slow grin and his fingers come up, tracing a path along my jaw. I jolt, his touch unexpected. Unwanted. My brows drop at the complete wrongness of it all.
“You want to talk now?” he whispers, gripping my jaw. “What happened when I wanted to talk, Eve? Where were you when I needed you? When I called?” He clicks his tongue. “You left me alone.”
I swallow roughly, flinching when his grip tightens. My hands stop pushing him away and start soothing, calming, sensing the shift.
I’ve never seen him like this. I’ve known his darkness, his anger and rage. The night he made me vomit up the alcohol with a brutality that shocked me. When he punished me over Marcus, over the party and Roman. But even then, I understood. I knew why he felt the need. I knew he was protecting me.
He’s not protecting me now, though.
I suck in a slow breath, my mind working through all the possible outcomes. I could yell. I could scream and tell him he’s being unfair. I could shove him away. I could run.
But this is Isaac.
“You left me alone, Eve,” he repeats, forcing my face to his. His jaw ticks.
I try to fight the words sitting on the tip of my tongue, but it’s impossible to choke them back. Not now. Not after everything. “But you weren’t alone,” I whisper. “You had Mary.”
And the church, the town, his friends at the Baptist trainings and here.
He’s never alone.
I don’t know what I expect him to say, but it’s not for his head to fall forward with a deep, rasping chuckle. His breath fans across my face with the force of it, and I catch the now familiar tinges of alcohol. I grimace and shove him away again.
His eyes snap to mine, his laughter dying as though it was never there. Isaac’s hand slides from my jaw to my hair. Before I even know what’s happening, my long ponytail is wrapped around his fist and he’s yanking my face to his.
