AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I could barely stand to touch you. Much less love you.” He paused, then added, “Consider yourself lucky. You’ve been spared the misery I would have put you through. Now stop fucking calling me.” With that, he hung up and my world came crashing down.
I had to run. Had to get away from the pitiful stare from the priest and the judgmental one from the Jesus on the cross.You disobeyed your father, this is what you get.
My lungs tighten as I recall Rowan’s voice. It’s a crushing force, suffocating. Deadly.
Grimacing, I pull my shoulders in and fist the fabric at my chest as I continue to die this slow death.
I could barely stand to touch you. Much less love you.
If that was true, he played his role to perfection. I happily gave him everything I had—my soul, my heart, my body—because I thought he loved me. But he couldn’t even bear to touch me?
I could barely stand to touch you. Much less love you.The words echo in my mind again and again, louder and louder each time.
“Go inside, Mom. I need to be alone.”
“I’m not leaving you out here.”
“Please,” I plead, my voice breaking. “Leave me alone.”
She peers into my face for a moment before nodding. “If you need me.”
“I know.”
When the sound of her footsteps fades away, I turn back to stare at the road. For a long while, I remain there, crying. Hurting. Dying.
Then it’s over.
I take my last breath as the girl who loved Rowan and my first as someone stronger. What once felt like warmth and love is suddenly a lump of coal in the pit of my stomach.
There’s a thin line between love and hate. Another false saying. The line between them is so wide, once you’ve crossed it, you can’t see to the other side.
Love is blind. You don’t perceive imperfections. But hate is also blind, filling your every thought with anger and a pressing need for revenge.
That’s when it hits me. The one saying thatistrue. So very true. And as I think about Rowan now, a terrifying smile spreads over my lips.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
1
LOUISA
Present Day…
“When I die, I want the last face I see to be yours.” I once said those foolish words. I was an innocent girl who’d just given herself, body and soul, to the man she loved.
“I’m not going to let you die before me,” his reply came as he drew lazy circles over my clavicle, luring me to sleep.
I cupped his face and stared into his eyes, at all the different hues of blue that make up his irises. Cerulean streaked with ice and steel.
“Then wait for me in Heaven,” I said.
His gaze darkened as he turned his face into my palm and kissed me there. “There’s only one spot reserved for a person like me. And that’s in Hell.”
“Wherever you go, I’ll follow. If the price of being with you is to burn for eternity, I’ll gladly pay it.”
“You may not always feel that way,” he said.
I smiled and shut my lids. “I will. No matter what, I’ll always be yours. I swear it. I’m yours forever.”
