“Daisy?” I grabbed her chin and she roughly jerked it away from me. “Shit. Are you okay? Was I too rough? Did I hurt you?”
She shut her eyes, letting tears stream down her face. I didn’t even realize she had been crying while we were making love.
“Fuck… baby. I’m sorry. I would never fucking hurt you.”
She instantly opened her eyes, and for the first time, I didn’t recognize the woman staring back at me.
My girl was gone.
She narrowed her eyes at me, shaking her head she scoffed out, “All you do is hurt me, Austin. That’s all you fucking do.”
I jerked back from the impact of her words.
“Congratulations, you got what you wanted. I gave into you. Your touch. Your lies. Your manipulation. Your love. Again. You know how to work me like I’m your favorite fucking toy. I’m done being played with. I can’t do this anymore with you. That right there… what just happened is how easily I lose all my sense of reasoning when it comes to you.”
I watched her grab her suitcase off the floor and walk to the door, taking my goddamn heart with her. She bowed her head, leaning it against the door like it killed her to be leaving me.
As much as it was killing me to watch.
At the last second she turned around and for a second, I thought my whole world was coming back to me.
“You’re addicted to drugs, Austin.” She shrugged, her voice breaking. “And I’m addicted to you.”
Looking deep into my eyes she spoke with conviction,
“And our love is just as fucking toxic.”
Chapter 37
<>Briggs<>
“How does that make you feel?”
“I hate it when you say that, Dr. Holden.”
“And yet after six months of coming to see me, you still know I have to say it,” my therapist chuckled.
Two days a week I sat on a comfortable leather sofa and poured my heart out to a complete stranger. We talked about anything and everything. Sometimes she just listened, and other times she asked questions. Trying to figure out the root of my problems and how to help me move on.
It had been six months since I left Austin. Six painful months since I ended up back in New York, knocking on my uncle’s penthouse door in the middle of the night. I had nowhere else to go. Before I even realized what I was doing and where I was, a woman answered the door. A young woman I had never seen before now.
“Jesus Christ, how many fucking times do I have to tell you not to answer the fucking door,” Uncle Alejandro roared.
“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t care what you fucking want?” she snapped back.
My eyes widened in disbelief that someone spoke to him that way and they were still standing. I’d never once seen a woman around my uncle, let alone in his penthouse. Even though I knew he went through * like they were nothing. I’d heard enough stories, but I’d never witnessed that side of him.
The door opened wider. He cocked his head to the side when he saw me, taking in my appearance. I could only imagine what he thought.
“Hey,” I greeted, fumbling with the strap of my bag. Not knowing what else to say.
He turned back toward the girl, who looked like she could be younger than me.
“Leave us,” he simply ordered.
She frowned, peering back and forth between us, even more confused than I was. She left.
“You’re kind of a dick.”
“So I’ve been told, but I’m not the one standing at your doorstep at five in the morning.”
“You know why I’m here. Let’s not pretend you don’t know everything that has been going on in my life. And I’ll pretend that you’ve been keeping tabs on me because you actually fucking care.” I walked past him. “I just need a place to crash for a few days until I figure out what I’m going to do. I’ll sleep in your guest bedroom, okay? You won’t even know I’m here. It will be like old times. You remember, right? You were hardly there for that too.”
He arched an eyebrow. “So this is a pleasant visit, I see. Perhaps we can blame your foul mood on your bitch-causing time.”
I rolled my eyes at his asshole remarks.
“You know where your bedroom is. I don’t think I need to remind you, seeing as you’re sharing such fond fucking memories from your childhood.”
“My bedroom? You kept my room?” I asked, shocked as shit. “Who are you?”
“Your uncle. The only family you have, peladita.”
“It makes me feel confused. Austin is the only man I’ve ever known outside of my uncle. He was my family. My heart. My reason. I miss him every single day, but I have so much hatred for him. I also still love him, which outweighs that hatred some days. I don’t blame him for my abortion. I did what I thought was the right thing to do at that time.”
“Do you think he would have stayed in recovery if you had kept the baby?”