Page 198 of The Bonus

He turns away from me as the tears break the dam and run down my face. I hate that I can’t do this even for them.

“When you broke my heart, I thought I would never recover,” I whisper.

I stare at his back; he can’t even look at me.

“And then I did, but when I healed, I healed different. I’m not the same girl anymore, Gabriel, and I don’t know how to get her back, it’s like I’m dead inside.”

His head drops.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “Don’t hate me…”

His head rises as if angered. “Touché.”

I screw up my face in tears and he walks through the back door without looking back.

The door clicks shut with a sharp snap. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to the empty room. “But you have no one to blame but yourself.”

The alarm goes off seemingly two minutes after I finally fell asleep, and I turn it off with force. I lie for a moment and stare at the ceiling as I try to collect my bearings.

Did that actually happen last night, or did I dream the whole thing?

Ugh…I drag myself out of bed and walk into the bathroom to see the wild monster staring back at me.

The homewrecker.

I’m not proud of myself or my actions on Saturday night, I should never have slept with him when I knew he had hopes for us. But in my defense I had told him time and again that I didn’t want anything with him going forward, he just didn’t listen.

Saturday night was never planned, it just happened…when he accosted me in the bathroom in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t exactly fucking romantic.

He knew exactly what he was doing, he used my physical attraction to him against me, made it impossible for me to stop. His fingers were already deep inside me before I could even think of a protest, by then my body had taken over from my brain. I will not take the blame for this.

No…this is on him.

I tie up my hair and turn on the shower. It’s going to be a long day. I’m exhausted already.

I put the lunchboxes into the schoolbags. “Come on, guys, we have to leave,” I call. “We’re going to be late.”

Lucia takes her schoolbag from the counter.

“Go and wait out the front, I’ll be out in a second.”

She walks out the front door. “Hi,” she gasps excitedly. “Mom, Dad’s here.”

What?

I stick my head around the corner and can see him standing on the front porch.

Dominic comes bounding down the stairs and runs to the front door.

“Hello, my man,” Gabriel says to him.

Dom gives him a lopsided smile. “Hi.”

“I’ve come to take you to school today if that’s okay. I hate that I didn’t get to say goodbye to you both on the weekend.”

Dominic bites his bottom lip to hide his smile, and his eyes flick to mine. “Is that okay, Mom?”

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