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“Fuck,” I roar, and I expect the mirror to shatter from the cries Emily lets loose with me.
She goes limp, the table taking her full body weight and half of mine as I lay my torso over her back. And then the fucking thing does give out, two of its legs caving in and sending the table, and us to the floor.
“I hope that was a reproduction,” Emily laughs, “or you just bought yourself a very expensive, busted antique table.”
Twenty
Five Years & Many Days Ago - London
Cole
“You have to stop calling her. Leave her alone.”
My blood boils, my fists clench. I want to send this phone through the drywall. “You don’t get it, I will never leave her alone. Give it up.”
“You listen to me. If you love her, you will stay away from her. She is miserable! She’s lost all kinds of weight, she can’t even eat without throwing up. She has bags under her eyes and cries herself to sleep every night!”
“That’s all the more reason I should be with her,” I argue.
I can’t stand the thought of Em suffering like this, it’s unbearable. Nothing is worth this.
“You’re only going to ruin her life, either now when she is young and can rebound and live a full and happy life, without you. Or, down the road. You’ll turn into your father, cheat on her, divorce her, take away everything that matters to her.”
“I would never do that,” I shout.
“You don’t have a choice, it’s who you are!”
“No, I would never hurt Emily.”
“Even if not intentionally, Cole, there’s no denying it. Deviant behavior is genetic. It’s literally in your DNA. You can’t escape it. You’ll only ruin her. She deserves better than that, and you know it.”
“That’s not true.”
Fuck, it can’t be true. I am not Stan. I would never, ever hit Em, cheat on her, fucking rape her. My stomach coils just thinking it.
“I’m sorry, but it’s true. These are facts. After Kristy told us, I looked it all up. I will show you research papers if you don’t believe me. You can’t change what you are. You’ll end up just like your piece of shit father and your whore of a mother. I won’t let you take Emily down your trail of destruction.”
“I love her,” I blurt out because, in the movies, this changes everything. It makes insurmountable obstacles fade away into the ether.
“If you love her, you will stay away from her. You’re toxic. If you loved her, you wouldn’t take her away from her family, her friends, let her miss out on college.”
“Then I’ll quit racing and come home. I’ll go with her wherever she wants to go to school.”
“And then what, Cole? Really? You’ll never be welcome here. So you’re going to take away her family, her friends? You’re going to deprive her of having children one day because you certainly can’t pass on your defective family genetics.”
“She doesn’t even want children!”
“Yes, she does, you idiot. She only told you she doesn’t because that’s what you needed to hear. She’s always wanted to be a mother.”
“That’s not… no,” I stutter.
This can’t be true, we talked about it. She even brought it up.
“Use your head, you know how kind and nurturing she is. You know she’s plenty smart enough to tell you whatever she needs to.”
Of course, she is kind and nurturing, but—would she lie? Fuck, we’re only eighteen. It didn’t seem like that big of a conversation to have at the time.
“This doesn’t make sense,” I pace back and forth in my bedroom, thankful Dante is not home to overhear this.
