Page 45 of With a Broken Wing
I cradled my face in my hands, unable to stop the ache in my face. “That’s not true,” I whispered. “Someday someone will love me.”
He gripped the back of my neck and sneered in my face with a sinister laugh. “No, they won’t. You meannothing.”
* * *
Present Day
“Sunshine?”
Demetri’s hand on my shoulder was strong, and his grasp on my chin was firm. Concern filled his dark eyes. I looked at him, realizing my arms were crossed protectively over my face. Slowly, I brought them back down to my lap, seeing the mug I had been holding broken on the ground next to me.
“Andy, say something.” He held my cheeks, forcing my gaze to meet his. “I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just me.”
I sucked in a shaky breath, blinking rapidly. “I’m okay.” I was trying to convince myself while simultaneously working to put together what had happened. I remembered closing my eyes.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Come here, sweetheart.” He pulled me against him, wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on my head. His grip was tight, and when he let go, I wished he would hold on longer. “I brought you breakfast.”
He handed me an apple and a granola bar, watching me expectantly even after I grabbed them from him. I took a small bite of the apple, swallowing back the bile that threatened to rise in my throat. It was like chalk on my tongue. I chewed it anyways and swallowed, forcing a smile to show him I was okay.
“I can see right through that fake smile of yours, you know that, sunshine? I know you’re not okay.” He traced my face, ending at my lips. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’snothing.”
He cringed when I said it. “You heard that wrong. You know it’s complicated.” That was putting it lightly.
Complicated didn’t begin to cover it. My life was a mess, and the only thing stopping my head from spinning was the rapidly dwindling collection of pills hidden safely in my bag. The ones I hadn’t wanted to touch since we’d been in Miami, not until this morning.
“Yeah, complicated is an understatement. You don’t have to tellmethat.” I looked at him and took another bite of the apple before setting it on the table by the chair. “You don’t have to worry about me, Demetri. I get it. It’s fine.”
I stood up, ready to be anywhere that didn’t smell like oak and mint, but I only made it a couple of steps before he was behind me. “When is your birthday?”
“What?” I asked, spinning back to face him. “Why?”
“You told Jules you don’t celebrate your birthday. When is your birthday?”
I rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Like you said, I don’t celebrate.”
He tilted his head, moving his grasp on my wrist to my hand and pulling me a step back towards him. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him and nuzzling my neck. “It does. Tell me or I’ll have Erin look it up. Your choice.”
Defeat left me in the form of a sigh. “July fourth.” It didn’t matter what day my birthday was if I didn’t live to see it happen. There was no way I was going to come up with the thirty thousand dollars Fisher wanted. Would he kill me on my birthday?
The irony made my knees shake, and the bites of apple churned in my mostly empty stomach. “I need to go.”
I wipedsilent tears from my cheeks as the plane took off. Hugging my best friend goodbye after a week of being together hurt as bad as it had the first time when she moved to Chicago. It felt like I left part of me behind at that villa. Not that Jules would be staying there either, but it’d felt like a different world. One where I wasn’t drowning under a mess of unhinged bad choices.
In Miami, I could believe I would have a happy ending. One where I saw my best friend every day. Where I actually belonged to Demetri and woke up with him every morning to watch the sunrise. I could believe I wouldn’t die on my twenty-ninth birthday. Then this morning, the sun had risen one more time over the bay while I sat in the chair on the patio alone.
My skin prickled the way it did when I was being watched, and I turned to see Demetri’s stare glued to my face. I was thankful he knew not to ask me if I was okay.He knew I wasn’t.
I leaned my head against the back of the seat and closed my eyes. We’d be landing in New York City soon. Scott and Erin would be flying out from Chicago to meet us and attend the meeting with Demetri. I dreaded that I wouldn’t see his eyes linger on me the way they had.
“You’re upset with me,” he said when we got into the back of the car.
Was I? “I’m not.” I tried to smile, stopping when I remembered him telling me he could see right through it. “I just miss Jules and Miami.”
He closed his hand around mine, a comfort I didn’t want to allow myself to enjoy but relished in. “Miami was fun, but you’ll go back.”
“Maybe,” I said. Would I go back? Would I go back with him? He said I was his, but I ached to know if that was still the case or if it was said in the heat of the moment. I wanted to believe I’d be okay either way, but I think we both knew it’d destroy me.He warned me.
