Page 74 of Bad Boy Neighbor

The only person’s opinion I should care for is my own.

If I don’t stand up for what I want, for who I want to become, then I might as well be dead.

Regardless of the eyes all heavily focused on me, when I stare back at Nicholas, my heart confirms what I have known all along.

This will never work.

I can’t half give myself to someone. Even with his flaws, Nicholas deserves someone who will love him whole. That’s what love can do—it can bring out the strong version of you when you least expect it.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Nicholas. I can’t do this.”

He smiles through his teeth. “Gabriella, don’t be ridiculous. Everyone is watching.”

I pull his hand to follow me behind the screen covered in gardenias. The crowd gasps, whispers beginning, but I no longer care what they think. This has to be about me, for once.

“Gabriella, are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“I don’t care. So they’ll watch us, judge us, and then they’ll move onto something else newsworthy. I care about you, but I can’t marry you. My heart doesn’t belong here.”

“Heart?” he seethes, eyes blazing at me. “It’s a goddamn marriage. Do you know how good we look on paper?”

“Paper,” I repeat, bowing my head. “But paper means nothing, Nicholas.”

I step off the backstage, hiding behind the pillars as the sounds of the crowd become louder. My parents race toward me.

My father is anything but forgiving, towering over me, ready to rein in his control with his stare deadly and ready to kill. “Gabriella, get back on that stage and marry Nicholas. How dare you humiliate us. If you walk away, you walk away with nothing. You understand me? You will be nothing to our family. I will make damn sure of that!”

The fear comes as crashing waves, those of a winter beach rather than with any warmth from a summer’s day. It comes as a chill that goes directly to the core of who I am, and it snarled loudly, telling me to cower just like every other time. Yet, this time, I allow myself the strength to begin swimming, live in that salty water with my own bravery, and be the person I am destined to be. I need to conquer fear and accept my pain as lessons I need to master.

No matter what I do, I will never be good enough for my family, and that doesn’t matter anymore. I need to be the best for me because, in the end, that’s the only opinion that matters.

I know at this moment, defying my father will see me walk through the pits of hell to find my heaven or remain in a non-existent life for eternity.

I choose to walk through the fire.

“Then I choose to be nothing to you,” I tell him, holding his angered stare with my confident gaze.

“I never should have accepted you into this family. You were a mistake born out of a foolish betrayal.” He doesn’t say another word to me, demanding my mother to remove me from the property at this instance. My mother breaks down in tears, her scathing expression mirroring my father.

“A mistake born out of a foolish betrayal…” I repeat, lowering my voice. “I don’t understand?”

“Why did you have to do this? He gave you everything! He gave us everything. I’ve spent your lifetime paying for my mistakes,” she sputters, momentarily beyond words. “I don’t ever want to see your face again.”

Pulling her dress up, she storms off, leaving me perplexed.

None of this makes any sense.

My father taking me in.

My mother’s mistakes.

Foolish betrayal.

Then it clicks, all his words, all my mother’s pleas, everything in my life up until this moment. I don’t belong here because I am not his—Edward Carmichael is not my father.

I stand here stunned, unable to move. Nicholas has disappeared, he’s nowhere to be seen. I’ve humiliated everyone, but the person most humiliated is me.

The one who was made to believe I owed him everything because he was my father.

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