I tried.
I forced myself to stay with that girl for two years for my mom. I saw how happy she was when I brought Allie around and they’d sit and chat away for hours before telling me I better marry her one day.
And I was going to. I was going to marry Allie to please her, to keep seeing the smile my father snuffed out years ago. Fuck, I even tricked myself into thinking I could have a family with her, fall for her along the way. That my broken soul would fix itself for someone I didn’t care for.
Then I fell for her stepson. I started needing him more than I needed air filling my lungs. I still do. I wish I could see him. One last time, I’d tell him how important he is to me. I’d tell the world he’s mine and I’m his.
I’d do anything to go back. I’d change so much.
“Fuck!” Dad shouts as he swerves right, but it’s too late.
Something rams into the side of us, and blinding hot pain rips me back to reality.
I’m losing control.
I can sense that my fragile hold over the panic festering inside me is slowly withering away. Cole has been missing and injured for two days. The more I think about it, the more irrational I become.
I’m speeding down a country lane leading to the abandoned warehouse. The odds that he took them there are slim, but a nagging sensation in the pit of my stomach and a sense of urgency have me pressing down harder on the accelerator.
I check the speedometer as I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. What if he’s not there? What if I’m too late?
My phone vibrates in my lap. It’s Dad.
“Sorry, can’t talk right now,” I mutter, declining the call. The rain has stopped, but dark, ominous clouds still paint the sky a deep shade of blue as thunder rumbles in the distance.
When Dad rings again, I curse under my breath. I don’t want to talk to him right now. I don’t want to fucking talk to anyone.
“What?” I bark, phone pressed to my ear.
Dad is quiet for a moment. Under normal circumstances, I would never speak to my dad like this, but I’m not myself. His unfeeling, collected, stone-faced son is nowhere to be found asthe car flies down a country road in the aftermath of a summer downpour. Water sprays from the wheels as I drive through yet another large puddle. If I’m not careful, I could waterplane, but the thought of the car spinning out of control and crashing into a tree seems like a welcome idea if I’m forced to exist in a world without Cole.
I’ve been a goner from the moment he chased me through the forest and wreaked havoc on my entire fucking world. Back then, while hiding his identity behind a mask, he shook me up from the inside like a snow globe until he stirred up all these complex, fucked-up emotions. Emotions that I don’t know what the fuck to do with. And he did it with such effortless ease; I had no say in the matter. So no, Cole doesn’t get to leave this fucking world without me. I refuse to let his dad take him away from me. I fucking refuse.
I will find him.
Ihaveto find him…
I taste salt, and it’s then I realize I’m crying again. I’ve never cried a fucking tear in my life until Cole.
“Fuck,” I breathe in a shaky tone and wipe my cheeks with the back of my hand.
“Where are you?” Dad asks, his tone softer than I’ve ever heard it.
“Why did you always hate Cole?” I ask, ignoring his question. “You never gave him a chance.”
Dad is silent for a moment before he blows out a soft breath, and I picture him pinching the space between his brows. “It’s not that I hate?—”
“Then what, Dad?” I interrupt.
“He has too much of his useless father in him,” he responds as if that’s a reasonable excuse. It’s not. Cole is nothing like his dad, and he’d soon see it, too, if he gave him a damn chance.
“I worried he would have a negative impact on you.”
If he only knew how Cole turned my world upside down. “That’s bullshit, and you know it.” The clouds light up as lightning streaks across the sky in the distance. “You didn’t like that you couldn’t control him like everything else in your life.”
“Blaise—” he starts, but I cut him off.
“No, you listen to me for once. I’m sick of you behaving like a tyrant. When we get them back, you owe them an apology.”
