Page 50 of Unravel Me

He cradles me in his big arms and takes me to the couch. This time he sets me down next to him before leaning down and wiping my tears away. I pull my knees up to my chest and knead my hands together in front of my shins until I feel the bite of pain.

“Your tears fucking destroy me, Iv. Talk to me.” He reaches for my hands, pulling them apart, and threads his fingers through mine.

“She said you were trapping me, Sawyer. It wasn’t just thinking I could be pregnant. It wasn’t just culinary school. She told me she heard you thank your dad for pulling strings to get me into U-Dub. That you had him pull strings to guarantee I would go there because you knew if I got in I would go, because that’s where you were going. I’m so sorry, Sawyer. I believed her.”

“Ivy . . . Fuck. You aren’t going to ask me if it’s true?” His eyes bounce back and forth between my own, looking for his answer.

I shake my head.

“I don’t need to. I know you didn’t. You wouldn’t. But I believed her. She was my mom, Sawyer. She’s the one who trapped me. She took away all my options. Not you. Never you. I’m so sorry,” I choke out.

“C’mere, baby.”

He pulls me into his lap, my head resting on his chest. He wraps his arms completely around me as I crumble into a million pieces and cry my heart out.

“I’m sorry.”

My heart has been ripped completely open. Bare, empty, and raw.

I cry for the time I lost.

For the teenagers who mapped out their lives, only to be torn apart.

For the pain I caused Sawyer.

I cry for the young girl who trusted her mother.

But I also cry for my mother. For the life she never got to live the way she dreamed. For the lengths that she went to keep me from making the same decisions she did. She mothered me the only way she knew how. I ache for the woman who was taken from the world too soon, without ever having the opportunity to live.

“Hey, baby, you need to breathe for me before you hyperventilate.”

Sawyer lifts me, pulling my back flush against his chest and my butt between his legs. He holds me tight against him and places one of his hands on the center of my chest, his palm flat against me, the other wrapped around my waist.

“Breathe in and out with me, baby. In, one, two, three, four, five. Hold it, baby girl. Breathe out. One, two, three, four, five.”

I close my eyes and focus on my breathing, the feeling of Sawyer around me, his smell, his voice as he coaches me through the technique he saw me use earlier. I release all the tension in my body as I relax into him and let go.

“That’s my girl. I’m so proud of you. Just breathe. You’re so strong.”

These are the last words I hear before sleep takes me.

Chapter 19

SAWYER

Ihold Ivy on her parents’ shitty-ass couch until my legs start to fall asleep before moving us to lie side by side. I carried her to the living room couch after she fell asleep on me in the entryway earlier. Tucking her into my body, my arms wrap around her to keep her close, and I settle her into my chest to cocoon her. I press my lips gently onto her forehead and take a deep inhale of her perfect, sweet scent when her phone starts vibrating on the coffee table in front of us. Ivy stirs slightly and I tighten my arms around her.

“Shh, baby. Sleep.”

I reach forward and grasp her phone to silence it when I see the missed call from an Unknown number. I put her phone on silent as the text message previews start coming in.

Unknown: Ivy, Ivy, Ivy. I warned you

Unknown: Come home

Unknown: I won’t say it again. You’re mine.

Unknown: GET FUCKING HOME

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