Page 51 of His Captive

“Maybe we’re not so different, Ethan. We’ve both lost enough to make us give up on happiness. So, neither of us really have anything to fear,” I smile sadly, and with the truth in my words tasting bitter on my lips, I make my way to the door.

“Lysa...” He speaks my name quietly before I have a chance to open it.

“Nobody’s fearless,” he tells me. “Not even me.”

Twelve

ETHAN

I storm up to my room like a fucking teenager, slamming the door behind me and heading straight for the shower. I’ve only just unloaded on her stomach, and already I feel deprived of her. She is venom, slowly injecting into my veins, polluting my body and overtaking all my reasoning.

Sorrento is winning.

Because she is pushing me toward insanity.

I sit on the floor of the shower and let the cold water pour over my head. My chest aching, while my stomach churns emptily. I know the feeling, and already feel like I’m drowning in it. And there isn’t enough hate in this world for me to survive it again.

My fingers tap at the steering wheel of my truck impatiently while I wait for her in the parking lot. Her car eventually pulls up and parks beside mine. Millie gets out and jumps into my passenger seat, filling up the cab of my truck with her infectious energy.

“This better be good Eth. Bride-to-be’s should be asleep this late on the night before their wedding. I had to sneak out. My mother would flip if she knew.”

I can’t look at her. Her perfectly manicured fingernails, her designer clothes. She doesn’t belong in a rusty pick up like mine.

“Do you love him?” I force the question out, keeping my eyes forward and staring at my speedometer for no reason other than to avoid looking at her.

“Ethan? What's all this about?” She giggles, though there’s unease in her laughter.

“Just answer the question, Mill,” I snap, and when I glance over to her, she’s staring back at me like she’s looking at a stranger.

“I know you hate him,” she says, placing her hand over mine, bringing me a comfort that is only borrowed.

“This isn’t about me.” I tear away from her, and her shocked face suddenly turns angry on me.

“Well, I’d say you calling me in the middle of the night, on the eve of my wedding, makes this kinda about you, Ethan.” Her arms fold across her chest as she waits for an explanation.

“I can’t let you marry him tomorrow. Not without telling you something.” I’m still wondering where I’m gonna find the courage to actually do that part.

“Look,” She sighs, her cheeks turning pink and her smile fading.

“I know about him and Kelsey Brook. Technically we weren’t dating then, and now Kelsey is shacked up with Wayne from the drive and buy—”

“Will you just stop talking for a goddamn minute?” I interrupt.

“Jesus Ethan, what is with you tonight? I actually thought you’d called me to get me out. To take me for a drink and ease my nerves. Like a real fri—”

“I’m in love with you,” I stop her mid-sentence. And just like that, it’s out. A years’ old secret, expelled from my lips with no way of taking it back.

“You love me?” she laughs as if I’ve made a joke.

“Yeah.” My face must show her that I’m about as serious as a fucking heart attack, because her voice fades along with her smile.

“But, you’re my, we’re...best friends.”

The words stab me just as hard as they have been for the eleven years I’ve been hearing them.

“You don’t love him. I know you don’t. He won't make you happy, Mill.” I hear how desperate I sound, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

It shouldn’t be this way. I had plans, I was gonna make sure I had something to offer her, but I’d run out of time.

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