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PROLOGUE
Her eyes were swollen, eyelashes wet and heavy with tears. Her body was quivering, and her breath ragged. It was breaking my heart. “Melanie, I love you. You have to believe me,” I pleaded. “Everything we’ve had was true. I wasn’t pretending my love for you. If I could go back in time—”
“But you can’t,” she cut me off, her voice cold and stern. “That’s the thing, Shane. You can’t!” She started crying, punching my chest with her fists, and I let her. “I hate you! God, I hate you so much! I trusted you. I told you everything I went through, and even that didn’t stop you from playing your role! You’re sick!”
“Melanie, you know that’s not true.” I gently grabbed her wrists in my hands, pressing them to my chest. I watched the woman, who I swore to protect, break down. I clenched my jaw, fighting back the tears in my eyes as she desperately cried. I knew I was the reason for it, and I couldn't stand that thought. Her pain was tearing me down. “I’ve regretted agreeing to my father’s fucked-up plan every fucking day since I met you. And I hate myself for it. I’m fucked up. I know that. But I was raised that way. My father was fueling me with goddamn revenge as if it was the purpose of my life. Until I met you.” My voice was breaking. I held her hands in mine and, for the first time in twenty years, cried. Last time I shed a tear, I was five and at my mother's funeral. “You freed me from this, Melanie. You freed me from the heavy chains keeping me in the past. And I love you. I so fucking love you, Melanie. You’re my life. I’m lost without you.”
“I don’t believe you,” Melanie sobbed, struggling to catch a breath. Fuck, I wanted to take the pain away from her. I just didn’t know how. I felt so fucking helpless. I broke the woman I loved the most.
“You have to believe me,” I whispered, grabbing her chin in my fingers and tilting her head back so our eyes locked. “Ever since I laid eyes on you, I knew I couldn’t hurt you. And you kept proving me right every single day. Everything I’ve done after was to protect you.”
Melanie pulled back, taking a deep breath as she wiped her tears. Her eyes turned black with lethal hatred. “If you wanted to protect me, you should’ve stayed away from me.”
“Melanie, please… give me a chance to prove that I love you.” My voice cracked.
“No, Shane. What we had was lust, not love.”
“Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true. We’ve mistaken lust for love.”
“No, Melanie. Only love can be this strong. And only love can hurt so damn much that I’m suffocating.”
“Well then… Love is lethal,” Melanie whispered, staring numbly into my eyes. I didn’t understand her words, but I felt cold shivers washing over me. I felt fear. “Because whatever this was… I overdosed, and it killed me.”
I shook my head, her words cut deep like a knife, tearing my heart apart. “Don’t say such things.”
Melanie looked at me with contempt, her eyes glistened with tears. “Stay the hell away from me,” she shrieked before she turned on her heels and got back in the car.
Ledford instantly drove away, and I felt like I was drowning. Suffocating. I stood alone on an empty street, surrounded only by the darkness of the night, immersing in the excruciating pain and questioning every decision I’d ever made that led me to this point.
Did I regret anything? Hell yes.
Would I change anything? No.
