He gave a mirthless laugh and shook his head. “No, because here I am, almost ten years later, and I don’t have afuckingclue how to move on. I loved you, and out of nowhere you just… ended it! Why?”
I jumped at his suddenly raised voice and swallowed hard. Without looking at the screen, I tried to presscallon Flynn’s number and shook my head at Ellis. A quick glance at my phone showed the call connected. Hurriedly, I made sure to press the volume button all the way down, all without taking my eyes off the man before me.
“Ellis, I told you why.”
“It’s bullshit,” he spat. “You told me some bullshit story about not loving me anymore, but I don’t believe it. A person doesn’t just wake up one morning and decide they’re not in love anymore.”
The anger on his face was alarming, sending a shiver up my spine. Thinking quickly, I tried to figure out how to get help here faster. Flynn didn’t know where I was, I had to give him something to go on and hope to God he sent help my wayquickly.
“You wanted answers, okay. And you thought barging into my room to corner me was the best way to get answers?”
“You’re never alone!” he shouted, taking a step forward. “After what happened today, we needed to talk, but you’re always with the girls or with fucking Flynn! God, what the hell do you see in that degenerate dick?”
“Ellis, let’s just calm down and talk about this. How about I buy you dinner and we’ll talk, just you and me?” I tried, hoping the offer of a meal alone would be enough to calm him down.
“No.” He shook his head and took another step forward. “No, we’ll be interrupted again, and I am sick of not having answers. Tell me now. What the fuck was so wrong with me that you couldn’t love me?”
I glanced around the room quickly, wondering if I could get out some other way, but the only real exit was the door, and he was blocking it.
“Answer me!”
I jerked in fear and bit back a gasp. “I already told you why. You just don’t want to accept it,” I answered quickly.
His face morphed into something ugly then, something twisted with disgust and disbelief.
“Liar,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
I shook my head. “Ellis, I didn’t want to hurt you. I never did. It was a small town, and we lived across the road from one another. I wanted to love you. I really tried. It’s why we were together for two years. But I just—”
“It’s because ofhim,isn’t it? He got in your head, told you a bunch of lies. He wanted me to be miserable and he turned you against me!”
“No one turned me against you,” I argued when he stepped closer again. “Ellis, I loved you as a friend, but I was never in love with you, and it was unfair of me to keep you when you loved mein a way I didn’t love you. I wanted you to be happy, so I let you go.”
“Iwashappy!Wewere happy. Flynn put himself between us. He couldn’t stand to see me happy, to have something that was just mine!”
I shook my head and put my hands up in a placating gesture, and he slapped the phone from my hand and send it to the ground with a thud and I jerked in fright. Backing up, I tried to put more space between us, but I hit the glass doors leading to the small balcony.
“Flynn and I weren’t even talking back then. I hadn’t talked to him since the night before he left,” I tried to explain.
“Liar!”
“Ellis, I’m telling the truth,” I tried desperately, fearful now of the manic look on his face. “With the exception of that kiss, there was never anything between Flynn and I but friendship. But when he left, that was it. We stopped talking, he was gone, and I was with you.”
“Bullshit!”
“I promise.”
“He told you about the bet, didn’t he? He told you, and you broke it off with me. But I loved you, Chiara. The bet was stupid; it meant nothing. I really loved you.”
I frowned, shaking my head. “No, he never told me. You know he didn’t.”
He sneered as if he didn’t believe me. “The bet never mattered to me. I was in love with you, but I took the bet because I knew we were meant to be together.”
I tried stepping slowly to the side so I could round the bed and get out, and he continued talking.
“He’s always been jealous of me and never wanted me to be happy,” Ellis spat. He took another threatening step forward, his face screwed up in rage, and I ended up pressed deeper into thebalcony doors. “Everything I have, he tries to take for himself. He tried to take my parents, he took you, and now he’s taken Sofia. He doesn’t want me happy because I burned that fucking photo album of hisyearsago. I’m tired of losing out every time he comes back into my life!”
I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, and right at that moment, I didn’t care. He was breathing heavily now, and he’d transformed into someone I didn’t even recognize. I had to do something, but I had no idea what. He was unhinged, totally off the rails and I didn’t know what to do to calm him down.
