AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I didn’t say before.”
“Before what?” she presses.
“Before I end this.”
“How?” she asks. “How are you going to end this?”
“I’ll turn his crap around on him.”
“Are you talking about framing your father?”
“I don’t have to frame him. I just have to do what you did to your ex. I just have to give Jean Claude proof that my father crossed him. And then he’s over.”
“He’ll kill him.”
“Or ruin him,” I say. “Whatever the case, it’s what my father deserves.”
She walks toward me, stops in front of me. “He’s your father.”
“Who do you think thought of using a red wig, Abbie? I guarantee you, it was him. He hates me. He wanted to hurt me. I’m why you’re in hell right now. My father killed your ex to punish you, therefore, punish me. That’s the shitty father I was born to. That’s what runs in my blood.”
“You don’t know that he did this and you aren’t like him!”
Suddenly, I’m done wondering if she will run and leave. It’s time she takes off the damn rose-colored glasses. It’s time we both take this bullet. “You don’t think I’m like him? Let’s talk about KM. Let’s talk about Kendall.”
Chapter eighty-five
Gabe
“No,” Abbie orders, poking my chest. “No.Do nottell me your deep, dark secret as a way to push me away. If you already regret asking me to live with you, you have a get out of jail free pass. I’ll leave.”
“That’s not what this is. I want you here with me. Why the fuck do you think I want to make my father go away?”
“Go away? I don’t want to know what that means. And you don’t get to use me to justify making himgo away.”
“Use you? That’s what you think I’m doing? Using you?”
“What I think, is that you need to go have another drink, Gabe, and get out of your own head.”
“Youwantedto know about KM.”
“I wanted to know what affects you, yes. I will always want to know what affects you, but not like this. Not when you’re out for blood. You know what you want to do is wrong. That’s why you’re doing this. You want to become a monster in my mind like you are in yours. Then you can do bad, get rid of me, and wallow in your own hatred for yourself. In other words, you can go backto what you were doing before you met me.” Her eyes narrow on me. “You know what? I’m not going to let that happen.”
She steps around me and starts walking toward the bedroom. The very act of her putting distance between us cuts me with a knife of emotions that bleed and scream in every part of me. I don’t stop her, though. Instead, I turn and watch her walk away. “How is this you not letting this happen? You’re leaving?”
“No.” She twists around to look at me. “I’m going to bed.Ourbed. Until you have the balls to tell me that you regret asking me to stay.” She doesn’t wait for a reply. She starts walking again and damn Dexter goes with her.
She’s staying.
For now.
She still doesn’t know about KM. That was the entire point of getting past this with her. Knowing she knows. Knowing she’ll stay here with me. I should never have asked her to move in with me before I told her. I was selfish. I was an asshole. The demons of the past are clawing at me, biting me. Eating me alive. I want to go after her and force her to listen, but that’s all her ex ever did to her: force her to do things his way. I want everything that could tear us apart gone, deleted, but I can’t just delete KM.
I scrub my jaw and turn to the window, but where it would normally bring me peace, it just explodes like empty space in my mind. This view is nothing. It’s not peace. It’s not calm. Abbie is my peace. She’s my only path to any version of happiness and damn it to hell, I came home to tell her about Kendall tonight, and not because I wanted to justify attacking my father. Not because I wanted Abbie to leave. Because I was afraid my father would take her from me. Because I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Because I’mnotgoing to let that happen.
I’m walking before I even register the decision, pursuing Abbie, and yes, Dexter. They are my family now. Or I hope likehell they are. Dexter is the only real sure thing. He won’t give a shit what happened with Kendall, but this is a triangle. We’re supposed to be a fucking triangle. I want a triangle. I step into the bedroom to find Abbie and Dexter on the bed, side by side. Abbie laying down, the blankets pulled to her chest.
