Page 68 of Shifted

"I think you should sober up," I say and attempt to move back, distancing myself. But Reed leans forward and smashes his lips against me again, pinning me down once more, avoiding my concern. His fingers reached up my now ripped shirt, and he pressed his weight against me. As I struggled to move with his force, his lips moved down to my chest, trailing kisses down as he restrained me, and I attempted to push him back again.

"Hope..." He whined like a fucking child. As he loosens his grip, I push him off me, and he falls back hard onto the bed. My heart raced as he stared at me, his hand placed on the back of his head, and he looked shocked by my actions. But I was so sick to my stomach and couldn’t even process what was happening fully.

"Reed, you're drunk and acting like a dick," I stood from the bed, quickly moving away to leave. But as I turned back to see him, a wave of rage sparked in his eyes.

"I haven't fucked anyone in four months. Hope, I'm not acting like a dick. I've been waiting for you for so long, and you never give." It’s like my stomach dives with his words, and he steps towards me again. I move slowly in hesitation, but he’s faster, and he steps towards me again, pressing me back against his wall.

This wasn't the Reed I knew. I'd never seen him drunk, but now I had, and now I knew him. But this other side of him strayed far off the part of him I knew—the one where he cared for me and my daughter, and intimacy wasn’t the main attraction, where he was patient and understanding about everything. The side that he loved me so much and could wait for me to be ready.

"Reed." He began to nuzzle his face into my neck again, trapping me against the wall. His hands gripped my waist, clawing his fingers into me.

"Reed, stop it."

"Just shut up and fuck me, Hope," He begged against my skin. I attempted to push him off, but it only made his grip stronger.

"Reed let go!" Then, with my shout, I felt my head colliding with the wall in his frustration. I knew I'd damaged something with the cracking sound from the indent I’d made in the wall. Ringing filled my ears as my head jolted, and just like that, everything shifted. His fist landed against my eye in anger, and I could barely breathe.

"God damn it, Hope," He groaned again. Having no sympathy for the pain he'd just caused, that he just hit me, that I was up against the wall defenseless and beaten. It was the nail in the coffin of whatever we had. He didn't drink much, and now I knew why, and I had a black eye coming on to prove it. I knew certainly now that I didn't love him and never would because the man I loved would've never laid a hand on me.

"R-Reed…" My voice comes out as a weak whisper as he continues to attempt to kiss me. My body was tense and stiff. A new type of horror filled me, the one where you realize you’ve let a monster right through the front door without recognizing the warnings.

"Four months of this shit, and you won't even put out Hope? We are adults. I love you, Hope, come on," He backed away with a certain evil in his eye. But as his demons saw the bruise growing on my face and arms. The blood against my shoulder from his bite, "H-Hope." I didn't want to hurt him, and I told myself I wouldn't hurt him. He wasn't a bad guy, so I thought. But he proved himself to be one, so without a second thought. I pushed him straight flat out on the ground.

"Fuck off" I kicked his body against the wall with what strength I could. I wanted to kill him, but his drunken demons weren't a good enough excuse. "Never contact me again, or I swear to god I'll kill you, and I mean it." Without a second thought, I left his room silently, leaving him on the floor.

Then I found myself running—running through his hall, to the elevator, and through the lobby. With a banging feeling in my head, I waited anxiously for an Uber down the road. When the driver arrived, the look on the man's face said it all. But he simply let me in, locked the door, and began to drive, focusing on the GPS. I felt the hot tears stream down my face as his words echoed in my mind.

"Four months of this shit, and you won't even put out?"

Like sex was the only thing that mattered. Not our moments together, not the words he'd whisper to me—the times when I'd let him grow an attachment to my daughter. I let him into my life for the first time since him. But now, the sour feeling in my stomach was mixed with disgust and heartbreak.

So when I broke out into a sob, the Uber driver turned off the radio and left noise in the car to me out of some type of respect. My hands collected my bruised face. I thought I was the strongest woman I ever knew, which was cocky of me in a way. But I’d taken the fast road to hell with my luck at times. But I found my weakness, which has been proven time and time again: love. It might just kill me, but maybe not on the outside, just the inside.

I was scared to see Bella, to have her see me so weak and vulnerable, and I definitely didn't want my daughter to see her mother like this, like I'd lost a fight I never should have.

When the Uber stopped, I looked over at her apartment building, empty on the inside.

It's the ones you never expect who hurt you the most.

I thanked the driver and exited the Uber. As I walked through the building, lingering stares lasted longer than usual. As I stepped into the elevator, I felt horrified by the mirrored walls that surrounded me.

His bite mark was carved into my shoulder, closer to my neck than I thought. My lip was now bruised, along with my arms. My eye was a different story; it was a humiliation in itself. I couldn't be Angel; I wasn't Angel at that moment.

I was Hope Taylor, a weak, feeble woman who couldn't fight for herself. I found myself in tears again, and I made it to her floor sooner than expected.

As I stood outside the door, the memories of our meeting in this spot flooded my mind, and it hurt. My heart broke; it was salt in an open wound that just got ripped open. I rang the bell, and when the door opened to Grayson, I watched as his smile faded and a look of horror flooded in.

"H-hope," I didn’t have the words as my mouth parted, and within seconds, I was pulled into his arms. I sobbed louder than I ever expected to. Reed was a crisis of my fate, someone who I trusted and who attempted to break me. I was back to where I was but at a new low, but this was different. That wasn't love; you don't do that to someone you love.

I hear the door shut behind me. My body moves, but I don't feel it in my legs. I felt the stinging pain in my eye, the throbbing of my head, and the burn of my shoulder as everything else seemed to be numb.

"Hope?" The concern of Bella's voice fills my ears, and as I lift my face to her, an audible gasp leaves her mouth. The fear held on her face was worse than Grayson's, and I knew it was bad. I could feel the pain. But their faces made it real. It was real.

"Who did this?" she trembles with her words. Her hand grazes my eye as I wince. She wipes the lasting tears against my cheeks.

Then, I jolted as I heard the sound of a glass shattering, and as I looked over to the living room, I saw him. His face was mixed with fury and panic. I looked to see his hands as his knuckles whitened. I'd never seen him look at me like this before.

"Who did this?" He demands as his words come out in an order rather than a question. A mix of anger and worry fills him as I stand weak.

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