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“Miss Miles, what’s this all about?” He was obviously ruffled. “I have come a long way to—”
“Mr. Bourns.” She did not have time for his lecture. “I am sorry to have inconvenienced you and I am sorry to have wasted your time, but I am not interested in your offer anymore.” She paused. “Thank you, sir.”
With that, she grabbed her nylon shell from the back of a bleacher and almost ran out of the arena. She made it as far as the locker room area before her legs gave out. She sat limply on a plain metal folding chair, slumped over, and cried. Her face in her hands. Yet somehow, these were purging, cleansing tears. She cried not because her chance was gone.
But because she had finally had the wisdom to let it go.
It was oddly enough one of the most wonderful moments she had ever experienced.
AFEW MINUTESpassed before Addisyn suddenly became aware of someone else in the small room. When she looked up, there was Brian, leaning against the wall, arms folded. Not saying anything, just glaring at her with stony hate.
Addisyn sighed. She wasn’t truly free yet. Not until she finished her business with this man. She looked at his dashing frame, his perfect features, and felt not the slightest bit of attraction. How could she have ever thought he was her Prince Charming? He was a user. Nothing more. She had been not his soulmate, but his commodity. Something to be manipulated, exploited, and ultimately discarded.
“Fine exhibition you made of yourself in there.” Brian’s voice dripped acid.
What could she tell him? Nothing. She lifted her hands and then let them fall to her sides. “You wouldn’t understand why I did it.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all.” Brian’s voice was becoming more agitated. He pushed off from the wall and took two steps toward her, his eyes blazing with suppressed fury. “Addisyn—” He looked at the ceiling and gave a sharp bark of a laugh. “We had the world at our fingertips! You were gonna go to the Olympics, you realize that, right? Ed—he was crazy about you. And you were skating like—like I’ve never seen you skate. Better than Sectionals, better than—” Brian broke off and shook his head wordlessly. “We had it all!” He held out his hand and pointed to his palm. “Right there. We had it all right there.”
We. We. We.Addisyn wondered how she had never noticed that before. Anger sizzled through her veins. “Yes, we did.” She stood slowly and stared up at the face of the man she had once thought had her best interest at heart. What a laugh and a half. “Actually, isn’t it you you’re thinking of?”
“What are you talking about?” Brian snarled. Addisyn braced herself. His ugly side was getting ready to show.
“I’m talking about the fact that you are the most selfish person I have ever met. You have never cared about me in the least.”
Brian’s facial expression would have been amusing at any other time. “Baby, that’s crazy! Haven’t I always helped you with your skating?”
Addisyn didn’t let her gaze waver. “When it was good for you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The truth had to be said. “You’ve always gotten what you wanted, Brian.” Addisyn locked her eyes onto his. “I’ve been your ticket to a lot of good stuff. Top-notch endorsements, envy from your colleagues, really good PR for your agency. And of course—you had me. Body and soul, I was yours. Because I truly believed you loved me.”
Brian snorted. “What nonsense. Of course I love you. You’re the most beautiful—”
“That isn’t me.” She couldn’t tolerate one more tacky compliment. “The person I really am is in here.” She laid one hand over her heart. “You never saw that person. You never wanted to see that person.” Her voice was even, firm, but not loud. “And don’t call mebabyanymore.” She paused, trying to slow her breathing. “We’re done, Brian.”
“Done?” Brian’s face drained to a chalky white. His lips parted, and his next words were breathy, as if he couldn’t get enough air. “What do you mean, done?”
“I mean that I don’t love you. And you don’t love me.” This was hard work, but it had to be done. “You have probably never loved anyone. You don’t know what love is.”
Brian’s face flushed to a mottled red. “Addisyn, you can’t do this to me!” A fierce, hard look burned on his face with an intensity that made Addisyn shudder. “Who has taken care of you all this time? Who got you to this point? Look, if you’re gonna try to get to the Olympics without—”
“I am not going to the Olympics!” Addisyn shouted for the first time. She stopped and took a deep breath. She didn’t want this to get nastier than it had to. “I am not going to the Olympics,” she repeated in a calmer voice. “I am going to find something better.”
“Something better?” Brian almost choked. “The Olympics are the top of the world. What are you thinking?”
“I am going to find my sister. And God.” Again a surge of joy washed over Addisyn. She almost laughed at the irony. She was standing in a bleak locker room, breaking up with her boyfriend, and turning her back on her lifelong dream. And she felt amazingly joyful. Maybe she was just numb.
“God?” Brian rolled his eyes. “Come on, Addisyn. Don’t tell me you’re turning into a religious freak like your stupid sister.”
“Don’t you ever call my sister stupid!” The fight that had been suppressed for so long was rising up in Addisyn. The fight to be free.
“And don’t you yell at me!” Brian took another step toward her. He was too close. She flinched.
“Brian, stop!”
Instead he grabbed her shoulders, his furious face only a few inches away. She could hear his rattling breath. Pain cracked through her torso as he shoved her into the wooden wall.
