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Aspen wasn’t a hugger, so I knew if this was happening right now, it was because she needed it. “I’m just… I can’t…” I laughed at her rambling, kicking my suitcase in through the doorway before we stumbled through after it and pushed the door closed behind us.
“I don’t have much time. I need to be in court in like an hour,” I said hurriedly, rushing down the hall to my bedroom. “I just need something presentable to wear.”
Aspen leaned against the doorway. “Drake really get arrested last night?”
My eyebrows shot up, and I paused, my hand on a dark blue blazer I was about to pull out. “How did you…”
“It’s on the news.”
“Of course, it is,” I said with a heavy sigh.
On the way over, Simon mentioned Drake had been released and was already on a plane here to meet me. He wouldn’t make court, but Reed was going to try and be there so I had some backup.
I was absolutely petrified.
But I was also ready for the chapters of my life that involved Brian to be shut forever so I could start writing the rest of my story.
The one with the rich, bad-boy CEO.
The one with the guy who believed in me.
The one where I found my worth.
“You’re smiling,” Aspen announced, and I glanced over at her to see a bright grin on her face. “He’s the real deal, huh?”
I couldn’t even explain all the ways that statement was true.
Drake wasthe real deal.
It took a special kind of man to not just make you fall in love with him but to make you fall more in love with yourself.
She opened her mouth to gush some more, but there was a hard banging on the apartment door.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
“It’s probably Simon,” I said, shaking my head with a smile. “I told him ten minutes, but I could tell he was a little antsy.”
We’d both only just stepped out from the hall and into the living room, where we could see the door and entryway when it actually exploded. Shards of wood flew toward us, both of us leaping out of our skin when the door crashed open, and a man stood on the other side.
A man I knew.
“Come here, you bitch,” Emmett roared, taking a step inside our apartment.
I shoved Aspen, pushing her toward our apartment’s tiny bathroom. His heavy footsteps chased us, the old wooden floors groaning under the weight of his anger. We made it to the bathroom, both of us throwing our bodies against the door as I struggled with the lock, my hands shaking, fighting to get it closed. It slipped into the lock just as there was a hard thud against the door.
Aspen and I both screamed and stumbled backward. “Call the police,” I hissed at Aspen, having to reach out and grab her arm and shake her when she continued to stand there, eyes wide in fear. “Aspen!”
Her entire body jolted back to life, digging deep into her pocket to pull out her cellphone.
“Open. The. Door!” His roar vibrated through the thick wood, and I swear my heart stopped.
Bang!
Something hard connected with the only barrier between us.
Everything shook.
Bang!
