Page 74 of Unfinished

“You know I have issues with trust. You know my mind goes to a dark place. Seeing you with other women drives me insane even though we aren’t together. You should have known that. I guess I’m just not worth waiting for.”

“You are,” Liam grabbed my arms, “I can’t explain it to you. I can’t give you the actual reasons why I’m doing what I am. But I need you to trust that I wouldn’t do anything to intentionally hurt you.”

“You want me to trust you? Accept your life? You want me to let you do all these things like I’m some goddamned kept side-piece. Why? So you can come into town and fuck me whenever you want? Gee, what do they call that? Oh that’s right, a whore! I am not your fucking whore, Liam!”

I walked past him hearing a few girls shout support my way and headed back into the club. Absolutely fuming, I couldn’t believe how stupid I was to believe we could make this work. How much worse would this be if we were actually together?

Chapter 33

Hannah

Liam grabbed my arm and spun me around, “I never called you a whore! I never expected anything like that from you! And you know that! I wanted to be with you!”

“And I wanted to prove to myself and the world that I was worthy of you!”

“What?”

“People wouldn’t say ‘she’s a gold-digger.’ They would say ‘Liam and Hannah have the cutest love story.’ I wanted a chance to come into your world in a way where I was respected!”

“Beautiful,” he started, but I tugged my arm out of his grasp.

“Don’t you dare call me that!”

“We aren’t done!”

“Yes we are! Go back to New York, Liam! It’s clear I was living a pipe dream thinking we could be together.” I turned on my heel and took off into the crowd. He yelled after me but I kept going, needing to be done with all of this.

I left the club because I couldn’t be anywhere near Liam. He would never let me walk away. I wished he would have tried to see things from my point of view but he never did. He pretended to agree with me, but the entire time I wasn’t actually free from him. I was his while he was free to do whatever he wanted to do. We had agreed to our arrangement but he never intended to let me see anyone else.

What hurt more to me was this feeling that he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. He was keeping secrets and I had a feeling when they came out it would completely destroy everything. I might be jealous and unable to commit to him at this point, but I was getting the feeling that everything he had been doing the last two years was him trying to manipulate me.

I walked down the street and spotted a dive bar. I walked in and went directly to the bar and sat down. The bartender spotted me and came over.

“Are there aliens in Pittsburgh?” The bartender asked.

“Nope, an ex-boyfriend,” I answered.

“Yikes, what are you having?”

“Tequila.” I showed him my ID and handed him my card to start a tab.

“Did you kick your ex’s ass?” The guy next to me asked.

“No. I don’t want that press.” I took the shot without even looking at him.

“Who were you dating that would cause press issues if you kicked his ass?”

“Some billionaire who couldn’t recognize that maybe some girls only want to be successful on their own.” I turned to look at the man and froze.

“Oh my god,” I gasped, then whispered, “You’re Marcus Sorokin.”

“Yep, and you are?” Marcus offered me his hand to shake.

“Hannah…” I shook his hand in complete awe.

Marcus Sorokin played professional hockey for the Pittsburgh team and while I was never really into sports, it was hard not to love the teams in this city. Ashley and I loved watching hockey together, probably because it was really hot when they started fighting.

“It’s nice to meet a fan, but you aren’t a local.”

---