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I had just finished packing my small suitcase when a knock came at my door. Dread immediately settled into my bones. My building was extremely secure. I had no reason to fear intruders, but Marcus had gotten so close to me the last time, I believed he was capable of anything at this point. I reached for the pepper spray that I had purchased when I first started receiving his texts and readied it.
I moved with caution toward the door, ready for anything in case it was really him. When I looked at the peephole, I sighed a breath of relief, but the relief would immediately turn into panic. What was Daniel doing here? I needed more time.
“Open the damn door, Selena.” Daniel's voice came from behind the thick wood.
“Stop, Daniel.” I didn’t even recognize my own voice. It was raspy and riddled with thick emotion. I wasn’t prepared to deal with him before I left tomorrow morning. “I said all I needed to say.”
“Open the damn door, or I’m breaking it down.” There was no room for argument in his tone. It shouldn’t have turned me on, but it did. He always did. “You are not leaving with a fucking letter and no real explanation. If you want to end this, then end it to my face, not with a piece of paper.”
I closed my eyes and clutched the collar of my shirt. He deserved more than this, and I knew that he did, but this was easier for me. If I had to tell him goodbye face to face, I knew that the words would fail me.
“Selena.” His voice took on a softer tone. “Open the door and talk to me. Maybe I can fix whatever you are running from. Is it me? Do I need to change something? Are you done with Chicago? Did something happen at the office? I can help you get a new job, or we will move cities, states, hell, even countries. But I am not letting you go that easily, dammit. I just got you.”
Hearing him sound so…lost tore at something in the center of my soul. “Daniel…”
My mother always used to tell me that being in love with someone was like having an extension of yourself. They were you, and you were them. You could not break the two apart. Daniel had become an extension of me. He had become intertwined with the very soul of my being. And now I was ripping that union apart.
It’s for his own good.
My mind was trying to comfort me, but I saw no comfort in any of this. I was hurting the person I loved the most in this world. I leaned against the door for support. My heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest. I brought my hands up to my face and tried not to let him hear me sobbing.
“The least you can do is talk to me since you've already broken my heart.” Those words cut far deeper than he knew. Marcus was too dangerous to leave to chance. “I told you stuff that I had only spoken in my mind,” he continued. “You own my heart Selena, and the least you can do is tell me to my fucking face that you don’t want me!”
I ripped the door open and came face to face with this man. His green eyes showed just how shattered he was.
No words left my mouth. I didn’t know how to tell him everything, even though I wanted to.
“A letter? You leave me with a fucking letter?”
He barreled into my apartment, and I followed him. I knew he would be mad, but I could not bear his heart. Hurting him was like hurting myself. When I finally came to terms with the fact that I was in love with this man, I knew I was done for.
“It’s for the best, Daniel.” I couldn’t even look at him. “This thing between us won’t work out. We are just far too different from each other, and I don’t fit into your world.”
“Are you serious right now?” The pain in his voice was so potent that it burned my throat. “You don’t fit into my world- youaremy world, Selena!”
I shook my head, “No, don’t say that. Please.”
“Say what? The truth? I denied myself of you for years. I pushed you away and ran from my feelings only now to come to terms with them, and now you want to run? What the hell?”
I bit down on my lip, my heart breaking, watching him standing in the middle of my apartment with his heart held out to me. I wanted nothing more than to take it and keep it safe, but I was too much of a danger to him. I couldn’t risk his life.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
“Talk to me! Don’t shut me out.” He crossed the room dropping the letter on the table and grabbing my face in his large hands. “I know you, Selena Abrams. And looking into your eyes right now, I can see that you love me. I know you do.”
My heart squeezed. “Daniel…please.”
He brushed the tears that spilled over my lids. “You are far too precious for me to lose, Sel. I pushed you away at every turn, and I damn well near lost you out of my own stupidity, and I will be damned if I lose you again. I’m not going anywhere; if you run, I’m running after you. There is no place on this green earth that you will go to that I will not follow after you. I don’t know when it happened, and I don’t know how it happened or the exact moment I realized it, but I am in love with you, Selena. And I know that you are in love with me, too. So, stop running, take my hand, and we will weather whatever storm you are trying to move through together.”
I gasped through my sobs, “You can’t mean that.”
“Mean what? That I love you? Because I do, I love you with every cell in my body. You have me, Selena. You own me. My heart. My mind. My soul. It’s all yours for the taking if you want it.”
Oh, how I wanted it all. How I wanted him. The air around us buzzed, and the tiny little tingles moved from where his hands held my face. For a brief moment, I dared to close my eyes and dream.
This was what I was giving up. This was what I was leaving in order to keep the heart that I loved so much beating.
I shook my head, a broken sob leaving my lips. “You’ll get hurt. I need to keep you safe.”
