Huh.
I think I like this girl.
“Is that why you’ve been calling your mother so often lately?”
He nods.
“I learned to let go. To see Mom as the best version of herself instead of that horrible version from when I was a kid.”
I pat his shoulder twice before releasing him. “I’m proud of you, son.”
“I’m not.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t like myself right now. I should be trying to get over her, but here I am being her advocate and thinking of ways to get her back.”
“If you want her back, do it. Or else you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
“What if it backfires again?”
“Talk to her and listen. Really listen, Jeremy. Not with your mind, but with your heart and your soul. Listen to her with parts of you that she helped heal. And if you still can’t trust her, so be it.”
He starts to take a sip of the vodka, then decides against it and leaves the bottle on the table. “I’ll do it when I’m sober.”
“I agree. And, Jeremy?”
“Yes?”
“The talk we just had about your mother will remain our secret. She can’t under any circumstances find out about it or she’ll feel horrible, and we don’t want that.”
“I wasn’t going to tell her.”
“Good.”
“Thank you, Dad.”
“What for?”
“Listening to me just now, but also for being there for both me and Mom all those years ago. Thank you for not giving up on her or me, no matter how hard it got.”
I smile. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat, Malysh.”
This time, I’m the one who takes a sip from his bottle of vodka, and then I point it at him. “Once you get your girl, bring her home to meet us. Your mother will love her.”
“That is, if she wants to be with me.”
“There’s an easy solution for that, son.”
“Which is?”
“Don’t give up until she does. That’s what I did with your mother.”
Speaking of my beautiful wife, I better finish my business in this godforsaken country so I can get back to her side.
Being physically away from Lia is no different than breathing through a straw and biding my time for the moment I’ll have her in my arms again.
Jeremy thanked me for not giving up on her, but I’m the one who’s thankful that she never gave up on me either.
My son and daughter were always meant to leave, but Lia is the only constant in my life.
My wife.
My obsession.
Mine.
41
CECILY
I can’t stop crying.
Every time I try to, my heart squeezes, and my eyes fill with tears until I think I have none left.
But I do.
I’ve been roaming the streets aimlessly for a few hours. My feet hurt, my muscles scream, but I don’t stop. If I do, then I’ll think of what happened tonight.
Of the pain that’s breaking my heart real slow, wreaking havoc from the inside out.
I don’t want to think about the cause of that pain. How Jeremy looked at me or the words he said to me.
Most importantly, I don’t want to think about how he seemed like he was going to kill me.
I’m the foolish one for laying my heart on the ground for him just so he could stomp all over it and leave me as this empty shell.
My feet come to a halt in front of the shelter. It’s closed, and no one is here besides the security inside.
Unable to walk anymore, I lower myself to the front step, wrap my arms around myself for some comfort, and lay my head against the cold wall.
I should probably call an Uber to take me back to the dorm, but I don’t want Ava and the others to see me like this. Hell, I don’t want to see me like this—broken, stupid, and desperate for someone who will never trust me.
For someone who hurt me so badly, I can’t find the pieces he broke.
I fetch my phone and stare at it through my blurry vision, but the battery dies and it goes black.
With a groan, I hold my head between my hands. I have a headache that’s been made worse by the throbbing emotional pain from tonight.
Jeremy and I were doing so well. After the few days we spent with my parents, I was sure he was it for me, that no one else would be able to stimulate my mind, body, and soul the way he does.
People repress their animalistic needs, but Jeremy nurtured them in me. He encouraged me to go after what I want, to ask for it, and fall deeper into it.
While he seemed refined, cold, and composed on the outside, a beast lurked inside him that called out to the animalistic part of me. Yes, he can be overbearing sometimes, but he was everything I didn’t think I wanted in a man.