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Ari took a step towards me, his hand reaching out. “Blake,” he said in a much calmer voice. “I understand you’re upset. I even understand that youdon’tunderstand. But you’d better understand by now that…You. Are. Mine. If you care about Clark at all, you’ll make that clear to him.”
I stared at him, a tear sliding down my cheek. He was watching it fall, a look of complete and utter ruin as he did.
There wasn’t a part of me that missed Clark. Just like there wasn’t a part of me that regretted choosing Ari. But I didn’t say that. I couldn’t.
I couldn’t tell him that his love had changed me. That I knew if I ended things with Ari, that if I didn't have him, I'd never want anyone else.
Ari didn’t have to worry about Clark. Because his only purpose nowadays was to serve as a haunting reminder that Ari had manipulated me. Pulled the strings and gone behind my back.
It was Ari or no one.
Always.
“I love you, Ari, but you can't manipulate people you love. You can't trick them. It's wrong.”
“I’ll say I’m sorry a million times, sunshine,” Ari whispered in a broken voice.
I flopped back onto the couch in utter defeat.
“The problem is, you won’t mean any of them.”
He didn’t deny it.
* * *
I stared at the ring, buried at the bottom of my dresser drawer. Its beauty didn’t fit in with the socks it was hiding under.
I’d told Ari that I’d thrown it away. That I wanted nothing to do with it.
And then I’d felt like a complete bitch because I swore he almost cried.
This ring was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Its only flaw…was that it now belonged to me…without my consent. I would've loved this ring...if he'd done it properly. If he'd gone down on one knee and proposed when I was coherent enough to accept. Now, I felt like it was tainted. And I hated that.
But it really was beautiful. And I couldn't deny the fact that I loved itbecausehe wanted me so badly. That much was clear from the lengths he'd gone. I slowly started to slip it on my finger...…right as Ari walked into the room–his gaze immediately locking onto my diamond clad hand.
“I guess we’re both liars, aren’t we, sunshine?” he murmured as he continued to stare.
His words whipped across my skin and I flinched.
Because he was right.
His expression was perfectly blank so I couldn’t read what he was thinking at all. That was so different from how it had been, when I could read every emotion that came across that beautiful face.
But the worst part of it…was that his eyes seemed dead. No emotion, no mischief…all the awe I’d treasured like a previous gift…gone.
I had killed it.
My father may have killed my mother, but I’d learned over the years that there were a lot of ways to destroy someone.
I was watching it happen right in front of me.
I didn’t understand how the mere thought of living without him was like a thousand pound weight on my chest, yet the idea of continuing in this state of mistrust and despair could feel just as heavy.
I laid in the darkness that night, once again wrapped in his arms, tears silently staining my pillow.
And I felt paralyzed.
Theonlything I knew for sure…
