Page 11 of No Second Chances

“You’re going to get fat, Kennedy. You should stop eating.”

Royal fucking Prince. Prick. Ex-fiancé. Asshole. Everything under the sun. I hate his voice more than almost anything. Except maybe for the sharp pang of terror that it sends down my spine as I remember every single thing he ever did to hurt me.

I don’t even know how he managed to find me, but honestly, I’m not surprised when I look up from my plate to see him sneering, with a pretty blonde at his side. The exact opposite of me, I may add. She has to be at least five six, and she is thin enough that I’d be able to blow at her and she’d fall over. She is also a complete and utter bitch, which I know from experience. She is a nurse, but more like Nurse Ratched than anything else. I almost feel bad for her, but not quite. She’s done more than enough in the time that I’ve known her to prove just how malicious and terrible she really is.

“Wow, Mallory.” I smile at her even though my stomach is turning sour just being in her presence, and the chances of me keeping my food down grow slimmer with every passing second. “I didn’t think you’d lower your standards to sleep with a lawyer.” Completely ignoring the fact that I slept with him, too, I keep the smile on my face even when my skin feels like it would shatter into a thousand pieces.

Mallory sniffs and then raises an eyebrow at me with a cocky expression on her face, smiling with her lips pressed together so she looks like a constipated duck.

Before she can say whatever toxic bullshit she creates in her head, I hold up a hand to silence her and try to ignore the slight tremble as I do so.

“I don’t give a shit what you have to say. You’re interrupting my lunch, and I’ve had a long day. Go away and take Royal with you.” I gag on his name, remembering the wasted year of my life I spent with him.

Royal glares at me, using the same expression he mastered during our time together, when he tried to change me into the perfect wife. Clearly, he failed. And I’m left avoiding the disappointment I can literally feel burning into my skin with his gaze.

“I just thought you should know.” He finally breaks the tension. “Mallory and I are getting married.”

She holds out her hand, sticking it directly in front of my face, and I snort at the small diamond she sports. “You’re an idiot.” I’m not sure which one of them I’m talking to, though, because they are both stupid. Her for getting with someone who abused me for a year, and him for being born. “I hope you’re happy together, but can you leave me to my tacos?” The slight waver in my voice is from hunger and irritation instead of fear, at least that’s what I tell myself.

Neither person moves, and I start to weigh the option of leaving before I’ve finished eating or having to deal with them standing over me, turning everything I eat into a nightmare.

“I’m not leaving,” Mallory bites out snidely. “We came to eat, and you don’t have a monopoly on the places in this town just because of your family.”

My heart kicks up a beat, and my palms start to sweat. The knife sitting on the table in front of me calls out silently, beckoning for me to use it.

“You’re right. I don’t, but I sure as fuck have a monopoly on this table.”

The knife is still there, waiting for me.

I pick it up, clearly losing my mind, and start tapping it against the table idly. Every single click of metal hitting the wooden tabletop, I picture it stabbing Mallory in the eyeball, drawing out her pain and agony, without an end in sight. There isn’t anything left to say. I’ve already asked them to leave, and they aren’t going anywhere.

I grab my purse from the bench at my side and try to get out, but Royal is there. Too close, like always. My mouth dries up, leaving nothing but ash as I start to panic. Royal smiles down at me.

“Move,” I croak, my throat convulsing on the word, making it impossible to say anything else.

Royal knows every single button to push in order to get me to react, and the proof is in my heart continuing to pound in an out-of-sync rhythm against my aching chest. Time slows, and I feel everything in my past come running back with a vengeance. Things Royal fucking knows about, and yet he still thinks it’s okay to treat me like shit.

“We’re not done talking.” Royal sneers. “I didn’t say you could leave, Kennedy. There are things we need to discuss.”

My day can’t possibly get any worse at this point, so I close my eyes and prepare for whatever he is about to say to ruin my week. Royal scares me, and my pulse hammers, echoing in my head and drowning out the background noise of the people going about their lives around us, completely oblivious to the fact that I am falling apart.

I have nowhere else to go with Royal blocking my only exit, so I do the only thing I can think of. I call my big brother for help. I should have called him as soon as Royal appeared, but I froze. Before Royal can stop me, I pull my phone from my pocket and dial.

“Remy,” I say into the phone as soon as he answers. “I need help.”

“Shit,” he gasps on the other end. “I just arrested someone, Kenny.”

Tears sting my eyes, and I try to ignore the way Royal snickers in front of me, even when I’m staring at the ground.

“It’s Royal,” I whisper.

Remy curses in the background. He doesn’t know the entire story with Royal or what happened to me. But he knows that I don’t want to be around him, and I hate physical confrontation more than anything else in the entire world.

“I’ll take care of it,” he mutters and hangs up on me.

Perfect.

Exhaustion from working a twelve-hour shift had already started to kick in before I even sat down to eat, and now it is in full force.

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