My phone, which was resting on the bed closer to Henry than me, buzzed with a text, making me blink and clear my throat, because I couldn’t go there. I couldn’t let that thought finish itself, couldn’t be weak and vulnerable or put myself out there to a man who’d already been trapped one too many times. I had to be strong to get through our goodbye. I had to fulfil the deal we made, releasing him from anything else he hadn’t asked for.
My phoned beeped again with another text as I picked up a handful of toiletries off the bed to scoop into the suitcase.
“Read those for me, will you?” I asked Henry. “It’s probably Bailey or Rhea wondering where I am.”
“I’m not reading your phone.”
“You have my permission.”
“No.”
“Why? It’s not like there’s anything bad on there for you to see.” I raised a brow. “Pretty sure all the naked pictures of me to exist are onyourphone now, anyway.” I filled my hands with more things to pack. “Which, by the way, I should probably be asking you to delete sometime soon.”
“You have your souvenirs, I have mine.” He winked, then picked up my phone to swipe his finger over it. I watched, amused, as he took in whatever stared back at him… until his face slowly fell.
I immediately thought of my mother and how she’d probably sent me a text update about my grandfather, or even her and Dad, but then Henry held the phone out for me to take and made sure to look anywhere else but at me.
“Erm. You should probably be the one to read these.”
“Why?” I scowled, confused by his reaction, but I leaned over to take the phone from him anyway.
The moment I read the messages, my skin prickled for all the wrong reasons.
Unknown Number
Can’t believe you blocked my number, Pheebs. You know better than to assume I only have one phone on the go. Seen your holiday pictures on Bailey’s Insta. You’re looking hotter than ever, my girl. When are you home? We’ve got a lot to talk about. I miss you.
Unknown Number
Also, whoever that guy is with his arm around you… you’d better tell him to stop touching what’s mine. I don’t want to have to break his face.
The sick, twisted, manipulative bastard.
His? HIS?I hadn’t been his since the moment he stood in front of me, telling me screwing another woman was something I simply had to ‘get over’.
If he thought for one minute I would ever get back with him, he had a hell of a surprise waiting for him, because I’d rather burn in Hell for eternity than give him another second of my life.
Even the thought of seeing Rob, never mind talking to him, made me want to throw up. Where once I’d thought there’d been love, now only hatred bloomed. Maybe not even that, because hatred required a degree of emotion still, and for that man—boy—I had nothing left. I’d made more beautiful memories with Henry in two weeks than I had in three years with that monster.
“What the hell,” I muttered to myself, wondering which pictures Bailey had posted on Instagram. Were they of all six of us, or just Henry and me?
I stared at my phone, drowning in surprise and mild disgust at Rob’s arrogant messages, when Henry rose to his feet.
“I’d better go find the guys. Our flight is in a few hours and?—”
I looked up sharply. “Wait, you’re leaving?”
He still couldn’t look me in the eye as he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, the hint of anger he tried to hide obvious to see. “Probably for the best.”
“Henry,” I said firmly. “Look at me.”
His nostrils flared, and he did so slowly, as though it pained him to do now.
I dropped the stupid phone on top of my clothes and went to him. “You’re not leaving me early.”
The muscles in his jaw worked in double time, his chest bouncing as his breaths grew heavier.
“Rob is the most arrogant, manipulative, disgusting excuse of a man I’ve ever met. I told you what he did to me. You know exactly how he made me feel. Those messages he just sent froma different number than the one Iblocked…” I thumbed over my shoulder. “They make me feel physically sick.”
