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Distantly, I’m aware of him still speaking, but I’ve stopped caring about his words. My vision is nearly all black, and my body goes limp. I have no more fight left in me. Nothing.
Roman.
As I lose consciousness, I don’t see the man above me. Instead, I see a pair of golden hazel eyes and all I know is peace.
I don’t know why I wake up, but I do, my eyes snapping open to a pitchblack hotel room as my heart thunders in my chest. My arms are empty and I bolt upright in the bed. Somehow, before I even look around, I already know what I’ll find—an empty bed, an empty room, and my Goldie nowhere to be seen.
I pat the sheets, saying a silent thank you to whoever’s listening that they’re still warm, but the thought dies almost immediately when I remember another time I woke up to a freshly abandoned bed only to find Eve a broken shell of herself.
“Fuck!” I shout, stumbling to my feet. I frantically search the room, the tiny ass bathroom tucked in the corner before throwing the door open. My eyes scan the hallway, but it’s empty, too. “Eve?”
Nothing.
I slam the door shut, the sound of it crashing only accelerating my fear, my anger. How could she do this? How could she leave me? She promised.
She promised.
My fingers run through my hair and my gaze lands on the little alarm clock on the nightstand.
2:39 am
Then my eyes catch on a white piece of paper next to it, the end table drawer still open, a pen sitting on a pad. A foreboding sense of dread clings to me as I make my way toward it. I reach out to switch on the bedside lamp, its soft glow illuminating her beautiful handwriting.
I hesitate, my heart pounding in my chest like an ominous drumbeat. My fingers tremble as I pick it up, my mind racing with a million terrifying possibilities, each of them worse than the previous.
She went back. I know she did.
But why?
Ro,
I'm so sorry, but I couldn't let him get away with this. What happened to our moms is unforgivable, but you, Roman Payne, are my hard line, and he needs to repent for what he did to you. He needs to suffer.
I have always loved you.
I will always love you.
You are all of my beginnings and the only ending I've ever dared let myself dream of. If this short moment with you is all I’ll ever have, just know that loving you was the best part of my existence.
Please don't hate me.
Your Goldie.
The words pierce through me like a knife, slicing through the numbness that had settled in my chest. My vision blurs as tears cascade down my cheeks, each drop carrying the weight of a thousand unspoken words.
“Baby,” I rasp, wiping at my tears. Everything that happened yesterday, everything we found out, everything I shared—it’s still so heavy, but this…my Eve heading back toward that monster, it’s too much.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
I scramble to get dressed, my fingers fumbling with buttons and zippers, as a frantic urgency pushes me forward. I need to find her, need to get to her before it’s too late.
Before she gets to him.
Before he gets to her.
The room spins as I stand frozen, watching Eve hunch over the vanity. With trembling hands, she tries to smooth toothpaste along her toothbrush. It drips everywhere, down her hands to the porcelain counter below, and she whimpers again. I take her in, bile rising higher in my throat as I see the smeared blood on her ass, on her thighs. The bruises in the shape of fingerprints on her hips.
She’s naked. She’s pale. She’s shaking.
