Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
“I’ll kill him,” I promised.
“You won’t. It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything’s—”
“He hurt you, Kierra. He’s abusing you both mentally and physically. Nothing is fine. Not until he’s dealt with.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” she said, shaking my hand away from her face. She stepped to the side, away from me, and began pacing as she wiped her tears. “I’m dealing with it.”
“Let me help you.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because.” She sighed. “He said if you’re around me, he’ll make things harder for you.”
“I know. He stopped by my office to threaten me.”
Her eyes widened. “He stopped by your office?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m here. I wanted to make sure you’re okay, which you’re not, and—”
“Did he follow you here?” she asked as she moved to her window and peered out toward the parking lot.
“What? No. Kierra—”
“You can’t be here, Gabriel.” A clear panic grew in her, telling me that this man had her spooked the hell out. That made me uneasy in a way that I couldn’t express with words. “We can’t see each other for a while. I’m sorry. There’s just so much going on, and I can’t risk your safety, or the safety of Ava and me. I’m working with lawyers to get things in order, but until then, you and I can’t be around each other.”
“Slow down. We’ll figure this out together.”
“We can’t!” she cried, tossing her hands up in defeat. “Don’t you see? There can’t be a ‘we’ right now. I’m not in a good place, and I know you’d do anything to help me get to a good place, but the best way for you to help now is to leave.”
That felt like a dagger to my chest, but I tried not to show how much it hurt. This wasn’t about me. It was about her and her safety.
“I can’t leave you knowing he’s hurting you,” I told her quietly.
“I can handle Henry. I can handle all of this. I just can’t have you in the mix with how my prenup is set up. He’s threatening me big-time, Gabriel, and I just can’t move so freely. So please. Just…” She took a deep breath and shook her head. “I need you to stay away from me.”
“But…” My voice dropped and the hurt that sliced through my soul leaked out from between my lips. “I just got you back.”
I saw it in her eyes, too. The heartbreak. The realization that we had to walk away from each other before we even had a chance to really find one another again. She was hurting just like me. She was hurting more than me. That was when it officially clicked in my mind. I found Kierra amid her storm. She was going through wars of torment when I reentered her life, and me being there was making it harder than before.
So even though it hurt, I understood her. I understood her pushing me away, because she couldn’t see a path where we could be together.
“I need to let you go again,” I whispered, the truth stinging my heart as it slipped between my lips.
Her tears fell at a rapid pace. “I’m so sorry, Gabriel. I should’ve never brought you into all of this. I should’ve never…” Her words fumbled off as she broke eye contact.
I moved over to her and took her hands into mine. I pulled them to my mouth and kissed her palms gently. “I’m glad you found me, Kierra. I needed to remember.”
“But this is a mess…and we just… I–I love you,” she cried out, allowing herself to move in closer to me. Allowing our closeness to come back to us. She was fighting it so much, but it was no secret that whenever we were near each other there was a magnetic pull, bringing us closer.
She was home to me.
I wanted to be home to her, too. Her firm foundation that would be there when she made it out of the storm—and she would. She’d make it out.
“I’ll wait for you,” I swore.
“I can’t ask you to do that, Gabriel. Who knows how long this whole process with the divorce might take? It could go on for a long time with Henry being petty and cruel.”
“I’ll wait for you,” I repeated.
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“I’ll wait for you,” I promised once more.
She tilted her head up toward me and shook her head. “I want you to live your life to the fullest. I want you to not sit waiting for me to come back to you. I’m not even a good thing right now, Gabriel. I’m broken,” she cried, shaking her head in disappointment. “I don’t even know why you’d want me as I am right now. I’m too much. I’m too weak right now.”
“You’re not weak.”
“Yes, I am. I’ve been weak a long time. I know you think I am, for staying with a man like Henry for so long.”