Page 95 of If You Stayed

He was as shocked as I was hearing those words fall from her mouth. Maybe it was the liquid courage pumping through her veins, or maybe she’d just reached her fed-up limit. Either way, she stood up for herself.

Henry quickly gripped her wrist and yanked her toward him with a force that sent a rage through every inch of me. “Don’t fucking embarrass me, Kierra,” he whispered as she cringed from his tight grip on her arm.

Without a thought, I headed up the stairs, straight toward Henry, and slammed my fist into his face. He stumbled backward, his body crashing to the floor. The whole party froze at that moment. The only sound heard was the music speakers, filling the space with jazz music.

The horrific situation made Kierra dart down the staircase and head outside. I followed after her. As I passed Ava, she looked just as perplexed as everyone else around us. “Gabriel, what’s going—?”

“One second, kid. Let me check on your mom,” I said as I sped past her.

I hurried to the backyard, where Kierra had rushed out to. She bent over and placed her hands on her sides, taking in deep breaths. Her whole body shook as I moved over to her. I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she almost leaped out of her skin as she shot around.

“Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay. It’s me. It’s me.”

The moment she realized it wasn’t her husband touching her, she tried her best to shake off her nerves and catch her breath. “Sorry, sorry. I–I–I can’t—” She shook her head and began to pace. “I fucking hate him,” she cried. “I fuckinghatehim.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I do, too.”

“He likes it. He likes when I catch him because he gets off on hurting me. He’s sick, and he couldn’t stand that today was about me. He couldn’t handle that something was for me and not him. He couldn’t…” She took a deep breath and waved her hands wildly. “Fuck it. I don’t care. I’m so tired of caring.There’s nothing more that I care about.”

“Kierra.”

“Yes?”

“How can I help?”

Those words made her movements slow down. She looked up at me and her eyes flooded with tears. “Can you make me strong? Not this weak, embarrassing person who now has to deal with a household of people seeing me have a breakdown? I don’t want to be like this anymore. I don’t want to be weak.”

“You’re not weak.”

“Yes,” she said. “I am.”

“No, you’re not. You’re strong, Kierra. And fuck him for making you feel anything but that. Fuck him for getting in your head and making you doubt the brilliant mind and person that you are. You deserve more.”

She stood in front of me with tears flooding her eyes. Her lips parted, but no words fell from them. I saw the heartache in her eyes, and I hated that it lived there. If I could, I’d swallow up all her pain and take it on as my own. Eyes like hers didn’t deserve to have such a broken look. Eyes like hers deserved to smile as much as her lips could. They deserved to sparkle with joy and an unattainable type of peace. She deservedmore.

“Kierra, you feel like the whole fucking galaxy wrapped up in one human being. I’m not saying that to convince you to want me over Henry. Fuck me in this situation. Fuck everyone else in this current moment. I’m telling you this because I need you to feel how I feel for you. I need you to look into the mirror and know that you are the whole fucking universe wrapped inone. And you deserve better than anything that man can give you. So again, right now, how can I help you?”

She lowered her head lowered and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Get everyone to leave? I don’t want to deal with anyone right now. I don’t have the energy.”

“You got it.” I moved closer to her. And closer.And closer.So close that I could lean in to whisper against her ear. “Whatever you need from me, I’ll do. Whenever you need me, call me. No matter what. I’ll always answer.”

***

I ushered everyone out of the house, making sure no one lingered too long other than Ava and Tamera.

“Is she okay?” Tamera asked about her daughter-in-law. “Did Henry do something?”

I smiled even though I wanted to tell her how shitty her son had been. But Ava was in earshot. Then again, it probably didn’t look good that I slammed my fist against her father’s jawline. “She’ll be okay. If you can keep an eye on her, that would be great.”

“Of course,” Tamera said. “Always. I’ll go check on her now.”

Oddly enough, I believed her. She didn’t seem much like her son at all.

I looked over at Ava, who looked so distraught. That broke my heart, too. I didn’t know my heart could break so many times for two women in my life. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“Are you okay?” she asked me, wide-eyed with concern.

“Yeah. I’m fine. I’m sorry about what I did. That was uncalled for.”

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