Page 53 of Don’t Forget Me

He began a rant about how much he had necessities as a man, but I wasn’t about to listen to a cheater’s excuse for his infidelity. I couldn’t help but think of my parents. Years before my mom left me with Mario, she explained to me why my father was not a part of our lives. He was a cheater and a drunk.

At first, he portrayed himself as a saint. He painted an amazing picture of a happy family for my mom. That was why she decided to have me, because that had always been her dream. Oh, how I wished she hadn’t believed his lies. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been born, but to me that seemed far better.

The life my mother lived was passed on to me like a curse. A chain that refused to be broken.

No.

I would not live my life as my mother did. I would not continue with this anathema. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t stop Aldair’s discourse. So, my right hand left its mark on his cheek.

“Shut up,” I said. “You don’t get to apologize, and you don’t get to explain.”

As I turned to get my purse, he grabbed my arm again, much harder this time. I looked back at him. “Let go of me.”

“Please, listen to me. It was a mistake.”

The supposed remorse in his eyes did not match the force with which he held onto me. Bile almost ran up my throat as I thought of Mario.

My stepfather was in the past, I reminded myself. Fighting with my own heart, trying to calm down the rough pulse in my throat.

“A mistake was accepting your miserable proposal for a marriage,” I spat.

“Lysandra, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” His grip only tightened around my wrist. I looked down at my arm wrapped around his grip. I breathed heavily as I prepared to fight for myself, if needed be.

“I said, let go of me,” I muttered.

Aldair’s gaze darkened. “You have to listen to me. You owe me at least that. You have no idea how much you’ve been putting me through.”

I swirled my wrist, enough for me to hold onto his forearm, and pushed him against the wall beside his door. His grasp around my arm loosened, allowing me to twist his own. He groaned. “How dare you put your hands on me, knowing what I went through? Bastard.”

When I arrived in Scotland, five years ago, and when I got my heart broken by Ezra, I promised myself that no man would ever hurt me again. Whether it would be physically or emotionally, which is why I made sure to always be prepared for any situation.

“I don’t want to hear from you ever again. If you call me, if you text me, if you reach out, I will make you regret it.” I slammed his cheek into the wall again, before reaching for my bag by the door and running the hell out of there.

“Lys? What the hell is wrong with you?” I heard him yell after me as I rushed through the hallways.

If only he truly understood where I came from.

I knew he had cheated on me, I knew I should have been heartbroken. Instead, I felt a sense of freedom I hadn’t felt in years. It was as if the chains around my ribcage had been broken and my heart could beat again.

I wanted to make it work. I was willing to learn to love Aldair. Why? Because I thought he was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

However, he was the type of guy who loved me in his own way and not in the way that I wanted.

I thought that I could’ve found a worse partner. I saw the way girls my age struggled to find love, and I thought love had found me through Aldair. He respected my dreams and was always my cheerleader. Not once did he leave my side. At times, he would console me even when he didn’t fully comprehend what was going on inside my mind.

But that was what friends did, didn’t they?

He did not know who I truly was.

Only one person knew who I truly was.

And that was Ezra.

twenty five

LYSANDRA

5 YEARS AGO