Page 112 of Mine Again
“You’re not dead,” she yells. Fierce. Real. And I revel in it.
I smile.
There she is.MyIsa. The one who never hid her fire from me.
And if there’s still heat, there’s still something to burn.
She jumps out of bed, completely naked, not noticing or caring. Her hair is a mess, her skin flushed, and her body still shows the marks of my possession of her from last night.
She starts pacing. A live wire. Every step tight with emotion.
I push off the floor, rising to my feet without taking my eyes off her.
She passes the doorway to the walk-in closet and pauses. When she realizes what it is, she steps back and disappears inside.
I wait.
When she reemerges, she’s tugging one of my long-sleeved sweatshirts over her head. It drowns her, hanging low on her thighs, sleeves too long. She doesn’t meet my eyes, and paces, barefoot and furious.
After her fifth seething circle of the room, she stops in front of me.
“You promised to come back for me,” she hisses, her brown eyes blazing.
“And I did,” I reply softly.
Her nostrils flare. Her fists clench at her sides.
“After five years?” She all but yells. “Where the hell have you been all this time?”
She takes a step closer. I don’t move.
“When you stopped sending me birthday chocolates after only two years, I thought you were dead.Dead, Luca. Because the man I loved would never have abandoned me like that.”
Her voice cracks completely now, full of betrayal.
“Ineverabandoned you.”
“You did,” she fires back.
She throws her hands up and tilts her head back like she’s searching the ceiling for control.
She doesn’t find it.
When she looks at me again, her eyes shine. A single tear slides down her cheek.
Fuck.
I feel it in my gut. Like a blade, it slices at me.
Her tears were always my undoing. Still are.
“Do you have any idea how much I’ve grieved for you?”
I hold her gaze, unblinking. My chest pulls tight.
I do.
I watched her grieve me. Watched her fall apart in the dark while I kept my distance. It ripped me in two.
