Page 49 of Rush
The line went dead, and I let out a frustrated roar.
No, no, no. This could not be happening!
Standing, I zeroed in on a vase of flowers on the table beside the chair and pushed it violently. A crash drew the attention of the hotel staff, but I was too upset to care. Everything was falling apart.Everything.
I had nothing but my suitcase. Wait, that was wrong. I did have something.A set of keys.
The sound of a man clearing his throat drew my attention. Glancing at the concierge standing in front of me, my cheeks turned beetroot red.
“Miss?” he said, glowering. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Rollingmy suitcase down the footpath, I came to a halt out front of Hunter’s terrace house in Collingwood. Until a week ago, it had been mine as well, but I wasn’t going to get caught up on a technicality. With any luck, he hadn’t had the locks changed yet. Besides, he knew I was going to come back for my stuff.
If he was going to be away for another six weeks, how would he know I was crashing here unless he rocked up early? He wouldn’t because I knew the alarm code, and he was too dumb to check the logs.
Unlocking the front door, I pushed it open and almost gagged at the familiar scent of mine and Hunter’s life. Rolling my case inside, I left it by the hall table and punched in the alarm code. Smirking as the keypad flashed green, I turned toward the dark interior of the place I used to call home.
I don’t know if I wanted to punish myself for what I did to Ryan or if I needed confirmation things were well and truly over with Hunter, but I went upstairs and stepped into the bedroom. The scene of the crime.
The bed was perfectly made with new sheets, and the room was heavy with the scent of Hunter’s cologne. The cologne I’d bought him years ago and had become his signature. He never wore anything else, but now that we weren’t together…
Oh, God, you shallow bitch, I thought to myself.Who gives a flying fuck about Hunter Ballinger?
I could be angry with myself all I wanted, but he’d been a large part of my life. We’d been together for ten years. Eleven if you counted all the times we’d broken up. Of course, it would be hard to leave it all behind.
Thinking about Ryan, I groaned. He was the only person who’d given a crap about me and look how I’d treated him. I was just as bad as Hunter. Maybe I’d deserved everything I’d gotten.
Sucking in a deep breath, my chest felt heavy. Sweat prickled across my forehead, and I leaned against the doorjamb, my heart racing. My entire life, I’d been working and sacrificing for this? This was what I got for working three different jobs to claw my way through University? This was what I got for working eighty-hour weeks at Slattery as head of marketing? What a fucking joke.
Practically hyperventilating, I rushed from the bedroom, thundered downstairs, skidded through the kitchen, and stumbled out into the back garden. Gulping in lungfuls of air, I grasped the edge of the trellis, breathing in the scent of lilac.
I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t face the shit things I’d done. I was such a coward it made me sick.
Glancing at the garage that opened out onto the lane behind the house, I curled my lip. Hunter’s car would still be in there. He always left it locked up when he went away and took a car service to the airport.
Looking over my shoulder at the house, I knew exactly where the spare key was hidden.
Fuck him. I was going to steal his car.
Parking Hunter’ssilver BMW in a secluded side street in East Melbourne, I killed the engine and sank back into the leather seat.
I was going mad. Certifiably insane. Stealing my ex’s car was right up there. If I was arrested… Hell, at least I would have a place to stay.
Think, Jade…
I was hollow. Nothing was inside me but pain. Hollow pain.
The giraffe Ryan bought me at the zoo sat on the seat beside me, and I pulled it into my lap. My mind filled with memories of all our adventures, and I knew it had been more. It had meant everything, and knowing there was a whole world out there I’d never even known existed, ate me up inside. All that wasted time, and for what? Misery.
I didn’t feel like this after Hunter. So alone, completely adrift and drowning in my despair. It didn’t feel like this because I never really loved him. The only thing I’d cared about was the idea of having the perfect life. I’d been shallow.
Now I’d fucked up the one thing that could’ve been my happily ever after.
Ryan was right. I’d said it before, and I would be saying it for the rest of my life. Ryan was right, and I was wrong.
Just as I was about to push the seat back and get comfortable, my phone began to ring. My heart twisted with a sick feeling of hope as I sifted through my handbag. Then as I saw the name lighting up the screen, I was bitch-slapped back into reality.
Margaret.
