My throat felt like it was closing.
My knees were shaking.
My heart was pounding so hard I felt it in my ears.
“Say something,” I choked. “Say anything. Lie to me. Tell me she’s dead. Tell me you left her. Tell me I’m your only one. Just—just f*****g say something before I start screaming.”
And then I waited.
Staring at him.
Hating him.
Needing him.
Shaking with the kind of emotional whiplash only an eighteen-year-old girl completely consumed by an older man could ever feel.
~~
The silence stretched.
And I swear to God, I was about to scream.
He was still standing there. Watching me. Breathing like a beast. Eyes burning through me like my words had cut him open — and maybe they had, maybe I wanted them to — but f**k, the way he just stood there made something inside me snap.
“
