Page 181 of Composed
I don’t even think he’s listening to me as his gaze stays locked on the stick. “You’re gonna ruin him.”
I shake my head. “No. I won’t.”
“You will.” He finally looks up at me, eyes dull, expression blank. “It’s what you do.”
Ice skitters down my spine, freezing me in place.
I did that to him.
My existence is the reason for that look on his face. The lack of feeling, the lack of heart. It’s all because of me.
“He doesn’t get to have it all,” he says, his eyes landing on my Hummingbird. “That’s not how this life works. You have to choose. Love or music. If you let him choose you, he’ll hate you forever.”
A sob rips from me. “Like you do?”
He doesn’t answer. Not that he needs to.
We both know our reality. I’m nothing more than a living, breathing reminder of everything he gave up. Of all the things he lost because my mum trapped him here with me while his old band shot to stardom and left him behind.
“Why are you doing this now?” I ask.
He waves the stick. “Because of this. Because it might not be positive now, but one day it will be and then he’ll give it all up for an empty life with you.”
My temples throb. “Why do you care? You don’t even know him.”
“I was him!” The floor vibrates as he shoots to his feet.
I stumble back, knocking the vanity with my guitar.
A string pops.
I fall to my knees and drag it into my chest as if the weight of the wood alone can hold me together while everything falls apart around me.
“I had it all,” my dad says. “The woman, the talent, the promise of a lifetime of making music. Then you came along, and everything died.”
I clench my eyes shut, steel digging into my hands from the strings.
“Idied the day you were born.” His boots slap into the carpet. “Don’t be the reason he dies too.”
Blood rushes through my ears as the door swings open.
A tear rolls down my cheek.
Then he delivers a final blow to my already cracking heart. “If you love him, Hendrix… Let him go.”
The guitar slips from my hold as the door clicks shut.
Chapter fifty-seven
Hendrix • Now
Little Tyrants – Anberlin
Myuniverseshifts,cracks,and then it fucking shatters.
Chapter fifty-eight
Cole • Now
