Page 80 of Arranged Obsession
“It’s about all of it!” I’m screaming now. I’m totally out of control. I feel dizzy, like I’m going to float up to the ceiling. He keeps staring at me, but now he seems concerned. “You’ve been breaking into my house for years, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” he says quietly. “I have.”
“You’ve been taking things from me. You’ve been watching me! God, Cormac, this is so fucking crazy!”
“I know.”
“Why do you have all this? Why did you do all this?”
“Feather—”
“Don’t call me that!” I scream at him, and when he tries to touch me, I shove him away. His face shuts down. A strange bleakness comes over him as I skirt around the room, keeping distance between us. “Don’t touch me. Don’t come near me. This is too much.”
“You knew,” he says, watching me carefully but not following. He’s doing that stillness thing again, like when he was in my office. He turns into a statue. “Why does this change anything?”
“Now I’m seeing it and it’s all hitting me at once. You’re my ghost. You’ve been invading my life for years. You’ve been… you’ve been…”
I back away, breathing hard. Hyperventilating. Some calm part of my mind is like,you’re having a panic attack, babe. But that part of me isn’t in charge anymore.
There’s only the blackness now.
Cormac’s that dark evil. He’s that yawning horror. I married a psycho, a crazy stalker, and he’s going to destroy me.
I fucked him! Ilikedit!
Oh, god, oh, god, this is so fucked up.
I bolt out of the room, knocking over a shelf as I go. Little objects clatter to the floor. An eyedropper rolls past me, clinking against some nail polish. Pieces of my life collected like trophies.
“Bianca!” he calls after me as I sprint away, careening down the hall. I can’t think of anything butget away, get away, get away. “Feather, wait!”
“Oh, god, please god, please help.” I should’ve reacted like this sooner. I should’ve run away screaming from the start. Instead, I let myself sink into him. I let him corrupt me.
Now I’m afraid it’s too late.
I reach the front door and yank it open. The city’s there waiting. The rush of traffic and strangers on the sidewalk. I sprint down the stoop and keep running. Cormac might be coming after me. He might be shouting for me to wait.
I don’t care.
Seeing my grandmother’s ring finally broke something in me.
All the carefully constructed walls are suddenly gone.
And I can’t ignore the sheer horror of the man I married anymore.
Chapter 26
Bianca
Apart of me was tempted to run all the way back to Philadelphia.
It wouldn’t be hard. One Amtrak ticket later, and I could’ve been back in my old house.
Except Adriano would send my ass packing.
I love my brother. And I think he loves me too. Only the Famiglia is always bigger than his family, and it doesn’t matter if my husband is a freaking stalker crazy person.
My place is here in New York City.
