Page 89 of Consequences

“I don’t love you anymore, Marnie. I don’t think I ever really did.”

“That’s not true. You… You’re just saying that to try and get rid of me—”

“No, it’s true. I don’t love you.”

This can’t be happening. Sure, she screwed up, but she’s done everything she could. Everything to show him how serious she is and how much she loves him. “You’re lying. If you were telling the truth, you’d look me in the eyes and say it. You can’t do that because you’re just trying to get me to leave.”

His head snaps up, and Venom’s blue eyes lock with hers. “I don’t love you.”

The words take her breath away, and it feels as though they’ve formed a gun, pulled the trigger, and fired a fatal shot right through her heart.

He doesn’t love me. He fell out of love with me. He thinks he never really did.

Grabbing onto the car as her legs wobble beneath her and threaten to drop her on her ass, Marnie tries to catch her breath. Her vision blurs from the tears, and her throat has a lump the size of Texas blocking her airway.

“Marnie, what the hell?” he asks, his hand reaching out to take her arm and stabilize her.

She pushes him away and refuses to look at him. “Don’t touch me.”

“Marnie—”

“You don’t love me, remember?”

“You looked like you were about to keel over. I still care about you as a person.”

Shaking her head, she leans over and rests her hands on her knees as she tries to take in large gulps of air to soothe the burning in her lungs. It doesn’t seem to help, and she worries she might pass out.

“Just go,” she squeaks.

“Marnie—”

“Go!” she cries. “You don’t get to say you care about me after telling me you never loved me. You don’t get to have a reaction to my pain. Not anymore. You made your decision, and it’s clear. I won’t bother you again.”

His feet shuffle in front of her, but she can’t look up at him. If she does, she knows she’ll completely shatter, and she can’t do that in front of him. He’ll want to take care of her, and she would let him. No, she needs to hate him in order to survive.

“Does this mean you’re going back to Summerville?”

“That’s not your concern anymore.”

“Marnie—”

“Look,” she says, finally daring to glance up at him.Yep, my chest could explode right now and not hurt as much as it does in this very moment.“The De-Identifier could come and get me, and you’d never know. That’s how much I’m not your concern anymore. I’m done bothering you.”

Venom looks at her with such pain she can’t look at him anymore and stares at his feet. “Don’t talk like that.”

“You should go. You have a girlfriend you’ve moved on with and probably love.”

“Marnie—”

“Stop saying my name. Please, Venom, just go,” she whispers, the dam finally breaking as a sob escapes.

His hand reaches out to her, but no matter how much she wants him to take her into his arms, she can’t. “I don’t want to leave you like this.”

“You did this!” Marnie screams and covers her mouth as she takes a shaky breath. Lowering her voice back to a normal volume, she shakes her head. “Don’t you get it? You just told me that I lost the only person I have ever felt completely safe with. The only person I thought truly loved me. I thought being without you felt like dying, but this… I was wrong. This pain might actually kill me.”

The last few words come out as a whisper, and she can’t hold back the sobs. The last thing she wants is his pity, and she hates how weak she is right now.

“Please don’t say that,” he whispers.

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