Page 70 of Bad Boy Neighbor

“Don’t make this harder than this is?” I laugh, running my hands through my hair, frustrated at myself. “You promised me you would be there for me today. In fact, when I confided in and trusted you, you continued to promise me that.”

“I promise I can explain?—”

“Let me guess? Prince Charming wooed you with a life you supposedly don’t want, and Daddy dearest threw in a bunch of money? Not shy of a whore if you ask me.”

“That’s uncalled for!”

“I trusted you,” I yell, causing people around us to stop. “Do you know how hard it is to let someone in? You, out of all people, should fucking know that, yet it all got to you. You know what… I’m done. Go back to your pathetic life.”

“Oliver, please… don’t do this.”

“Then walk away right now. With me. Don’t go back to that restaurant,” I demand.

The ultimatum unraveled itself. I never wanted to place one on her, but my rage controls my irrational thoughts.

It’s that life or me.

No halfway point.

No compromises.

Her face turns ashen. She crosses her arms tight against her chest as she squirms on the spot.

“Just stop! We’re all adults here, and there’s a proper way to do things, and running away isn’t one of them,” she answers, patronizing me.

“Do you love me?”

“Oliver…”

Her silence doesn’t warrant a response. It’s clear my feelings aren’t replicated. My heartbreak begins to transpire to grief, giant waves crashing into my already shattered walls.

What’s left of me is fragments on the floor, scared that the next wind will blow them away. So I make the decision I should have done a long time ago when I knew she would never change, especially for me.

“That’s the difference, I guess, between you and me,” I croak, my head down, unable to look into her eyes. “Goodbye, Gabriella.”

Spinning on my heel, I walk away, desperate to escape her face and this life. She’s stolen a part of me, making it impossible to even think about how I’m going to pull myself together.

Gabriella Carmichael had done what I’d tried to avoid all along, yet somewhere during our time together, I allowed her to own a piece of me. To come so close to pure love and to lose it so violently is the ultimate pain.

And now, I have to bear the ramifications of my careless heart.

I have no clue where I want to go or be.

But I know this much—I want to get as far away from her as possible.

Forget she ever existed.

Forget how she felt beneath my touch.

And forget how I fell hopelessly in love with her.

Twenty-One

Gabriella

Six Months Later

“Gabriella, shoulders straight.”

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