Page 62 of Vengeful Lies

The kiss he touched on her forehead was brotherly, but she was already shutting down all her feelings for this family.

They weren't hers and they were never going to be hers.

The last thing she would ever do was call any one of them.

And she didn't want this to be sorted, she didn't want to hear from Cade again. If he could throw her away like she was used garbage when he knew she’d just lived through a horrific ordeal and had literally no family to be her support system, then he wasn't the man she’d thought he was.

He wasn't the man she needed.

Maybe there just really weren't any good men out there.

Or it was her.

Maybe she was the problem.

She was unlovable, she was trash, she wasn't worth anyone’s time, effort, or attention. She was nothing.

The drive to the hotel passed in a blur and she barely remembered thanking the driver and lugging her suitcase inside. How many times had she done just this as a child? Walk away from the house she’d been living in with nothing more than a bag of clothes. Always alone.

Checking into a suite, she left her suitcase for a porter to bring up to her room and stumbled in a daze into a elevator. Aware of nothing happening around her, Gabriella just clutched her purse in one hand and the key card for her room in the other.

Finally, the elevator reached her floor, and she looked through blurry eyes to see which hall her room was down. Getting inside her room was a relief. She was out of sight now, she could fall apart if she wanted to.

And she did.

With a sob that seemed to cleave her chest right in two, she staggered through the bedroom and into the bathroom. There was a huge walk-in shower and she stripped out of her clothes, turned the water on as hot as she could bear, and stepped under it.

Under the pulsing hot spray, she allowed her tears to flood out. Crying for everything she’d never had, everything she’d lost, and everything that would never be hers.

Alone.

The word screamed through her head on a loop.

Caving under its pressure, she sank to her knees and curled up in a ball.

Alone.

Always alone.

Always going to be alone.

It was time to accept that fact and stop pretending that somewhere out there was a family that would be hers.

Chapter

Sixteen

September 9th

7:14 A.M.

“Where’s Gabby?” Essie asked as they walked hand in hand down the stairs to the kitchen.

Because he was the lowest form of scum, he’d had Prey hack her credit card information so he knew which hotel she was staying in. It probably wasn't his smartest decision because knowing where she was only intensified his need to go to her, take back the words he’d said, and beg her to understand he was trying to keep her safe.

“Gabriella’s not here, she had to leave,” Cade told his daughter as he led her into the kitchen.

Essie’s little face scrunched up in confusion. “Gabby wouldn't leave me.”

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