Page 30 of Broken Halo

“When one is the recipient of being blocked, they’re very much aware.” That’s when Jen snuck a bottle of tequila from our dad’s bar and confiscated my phone. We sat in my closet that night and I drank as much as I cried. I didn’t even get out of bed for Thanksgiving dinner.

“Tell me what was on the voicemails.”

We’re in this weird emotionless standoff. My mouth might as well be the desert and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold onto my resolve. “Ten years is a long time. I can’t remember. Get out of my office and off my property.”

He doesn’t budge. “What did I miss?”

What did he miss? He only missed everything. We both did. “Nothing. Now, I swear on your mother’s grave—and I loved her like she was my own—if you don’t get the fuck out right now, I’ll call Eli and he’ll throw you out.”

“Zero-three-zero-nine.”

The blood drains from my head and I have to grip the edge of my desk to not sway. I don’t know why I thought I could hold it together around him. My lungs scream for air and I can’t speak.

He raises his voice. “What did I miss?”

That’s it. I can’t take it anymore.

I break eye contact and scramble for my cell, but he’s faster. Grabbing my wrist, he’s up and around my desk quicker than I can beg for my next breath. My cell tumbles from my hand. The next thing I know, arms circle me.

Arms I used to love.

Arms that used to love me.

Arms that held me on the worst day of my life.

Arms I thought would be there to support me … forever.

“Let me go!” I scream.

He’s got a foot and at least a hundred pounds on me so it’s nothing for him to press his front to my back and have me completely overpowered. My wrists are easily fisted in one of his hands so he can push my hair away with the other and his lips come to my ear where he whispers, “March ninth.”

“Stop it!” I scream, tears form and spill as I thrash, desperate to get away.

The door to my office bursts open and Quinn is standing there with sheer panic on her face as she holds my son tight to her chest.

Trig ignores her and keeps torturing me. “Does it haunt you? Because it haunts me every fucking day.”

My tears come with such force, I barely notice Quinn turn and disappear with my child.

His arms tighten around me and not in a good way. “Tell me what I missed all those years ago. What were you so desperate to tell me?”

I shake my head as every muscle in my body fights for an escape but it’s my heart that needs it most.

He lifts me off my feet and I lose all leverage. “I thought I was stupid for loving you. If I’d heard your voice during that time, it would’ve done me in.”

“Let me go,” I beg through my tears.

With his lips on my skin below my ear, he keeps torturing me. “I was young and stupid and the guilt was heavy—I couldn’t take it. Then you broke me at a time I didn’t think I could break anymore.”

Sobs wrack my chest and I give up. When I fall limp in his arms, he supports my weight and lets my wrists go. He drags his nose up the side of my face and inhales. His next words come out gruff and laced in pain. “It was hell going through that alone, angel. Without you.”

I allow my body to collapse in his arms and we go to the floor.

The next thing I know I hear footsteps running into the room. “What the fuck is going on?”

It’s Eli, but I can’t see him. The man who hates me has me cradled to his chest and I’m sobbing into his neck, a place I never thought I’d be again.

His words rumble through his chest and I feel them everywhere. “Call Jen and have her come get the baby. I’m taking Ellie home.”

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