Page 2 of Bona Fide

? I Found — Amber Run ?

My sins caughtup to me.

I knew they would eventually.

Demi Juliet Andino was the biggest cardinal sin I’ve ever made in my life. I broke every single rule with her and made her a saint while I worshipped the ground she walked on in her Jimmy Choo heels. I let her reign over my world while I sat back and ignored the fact that everything she presented was wrong and immoral. That what she stood for was deplorable, but that wasn’t even scratching the surface of who she was.

Demi is my wife.

A beautiful devil who trudged around the world for her next victim. To suck another soul out of yet another man because that’s what she was created to do. And I fell hard, hitting every step on the way down in the tower I built for us.

Every dream I had assembled for us, she sucked up and devoured. Only to spit it out in my face with the lies and cons she sold to me.

And I couldn’t get rid of her.

The pain that permeates my left temple and gums still doesn’t compare to the discomfort in my chest. I watch the ironic blue dress—a different shade and style but blue all the same—as Reagan shoves into the double doors and disappears into the parking lot.

This was everything I’ve warned myself not to do.

I understood every cautionary that was involved when I hired Reagan. Identified the dangers of hurting her with the things I knew that loomed in the background of my life. Every cautionary my brain screamed at me, every itch I continued forth with just to have one more second with the woman that drove me to learn more, feel more, and to just be with, all ended after a minute of Demi being back in the picture.

I’ve betrayed and lied to Reagan—just like my fucking wife did to me.

“I’m disappointed that you thought she’d be able to take my place, Wade. You used to have such good taste.” I’ll never forget that voice, no matter who or what came through the throngs of my life. It’s etched into my memory bank, forever stained there to torture and taunt me.

“Obviously not,” I reply, still looking at the door that Reagan left through moments ago. “I married you, didn’t I?”

I should run after her. I don’t give a fuck if she hits me again, I deserve it. Driving home upset isn’t what she should be doing right now, and if something happens to her…

A light chuckle sounds behind me, settling me back into the problem at hand.

She’s loving this. It’s what she does best, taking something I want and decimating it. To see how far she can get me to crack before I lose my entire shit on something or someone to the point of not knowing who I am anymore.

I’ve lived in the dark with the monster hiding in the shadows. Who beckons you to come out and play because they’d never hurt you. Who slowly creeps under your skin, gains your trust, then strangles you with their bare hands. And if you’re lucky, which I wasn’t, they won’t sink their teeth into your throat and suck you dry.

“You did,” Demi retorts. “Then sent me away.”

“It was that or kill you,” I deadpan. And I’ve thought about it—more times than deems sane.

“You don’t have the stomach for it,” she snarks. “Except for that one time.” That particular memory that I tucked away comes full force through my brain like a hurricane, and I’m still there.

The screams.

All the blood.

There was so much that my knuckles slipped and slid while I kept plummeting my fists into his face. I remember the howls and pleads to stop, but I didn’t—I couldn’t because Demi told me he tried to rape her.

Only he didn’t.

He was just some random guy at a bar that she chose out of a crowd. A place she shouldn’t have been in the first place, but I ignored that fact and still followed her because he allegedly touched what was mine.

I almost killed him.

I would’ve if men didn’t come out of the bar and pull me off of him while my girlfriend watched me beat him to a pulp. Four broken ribs, cheekbone, nose, a ruptured spleen, and internal bleeding. My father took care of the hospital bills and the payoff for my innocent victim to keep his mouth shut.

I was young, blindly in love, and a raging, fucking dumbass when it came to Demi.

Because I loved her.

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