Page 113 of Sweet Wicked Vows

Marry the girl and use her to take down her piece of shit father.

I didn’t want to be alone, feeling every inch of the unforgiving pain threatening to consume me whole.

Jaxon played me like a fiddle, making me think he loved me when the reality was that I was simply a tool for him to use and nothing more.

How could the same man who made my heart skip a beat, the one who couldn’t stand another man making me laugh, have done this?

Lola didn’t ask any questions when I appeared at her apartment with Bell in one arm and an overflowing suitcase in the other. She simply carried my suitcase into her spare bedroom and told me to rest.

The first night without Jaxon, the sobs wracked through my body so violently that I vomited all over the bedsheets. I hugged myself to sleep while Lola curled herself around me after helping me clean up the mess.

Every night since, I cried unheard tears until I fell asleep.

The next two weeks, both Lola and Violet hovered around me, but they never pushed me into talking about what actually happened.

I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to poke at the fresh wound that refused to heal and instead opened wider each time I thought about Jaxon.

I thought getting over Laurence was difficult, turned out it was a walk in the freaking park compared to Jaxon.

Busying myself helped. I did whatever I could to keep my mind occupied. That was when me and my friends started to organize the opening of my new business while still trying to figure out how to handle my father’s company.

“Morning.” Lola handed me a cup of coffee. “I didn’t wake you last night, did I?”

Curled up on her sofa, nursing my now fourth cup of sweetened coffee of the morning, I closed the manuscript I was currently losing my mind over. “What time did you get in?”

“Three.” Lola plonked herself down beside me. “There was a party after training last night. Lilly was pretty adamant that I shouldn’t go just in case Mickey was there. He flew in a couple nights ago to see his family. But I told her I wasn’t putting my life on hold because I might or might not bump into him.”

Her and Mickey were officially over, or well, as over as it could be for an on-again, off-again, sexually based relationship.

Though she’d never admit it, she was taking it harder than she dared voice.

“It’s not like he has stopped living his life. He’s still the same old Mickey, no matter what’s happened.”

“Was he there?”

“Didn’t notice.” Lola dodged the question. “There were a lot of people there. Some I recognized, some I didn’t.”

He was definitely there. But who was I to judge? My own love life was a total car wreck, and I understood what it felt like to want to stay the hell away from someone and never see them again, while at the same time longing to be near them.

“Your bedroom light was still on when I got home.”

“It’s this manuscript. I seriously cannot put it down.” It was a half-truth. The manuscript was amazing, and I was devouring my way through it at a record pace, but it wasn’t the reasonsleep was no longer my friend. There was only one reason. A reason dressed in monochrome and scowling faces. “I fell asleep reading. Forgot to turn out the light.”

Her brows creased. “That’s the sixth night in a row.”

“Like I said, the manuscript is very good.”

Lola looked unconvinced. “You know, I thought giving you space was the best option. Let you come to me when you were ready to talk. But now, I realize whatever it is you’re doing, it’s not healthy. Tell me what happened because I cannot sit by and watch you like this anymore.”

My lips pressed into a thin line.

“You know you can tell me anything, Evie. This is a no-judgment zone.” Lola reached for my hand. “Whatever happened, whatever you need from me, I am right here for you. Vi, too.”

“I know you are, and I love you guys for it.”

“We love you, too,” she said. “We’re worried about you and don’t know how to help. All we want is for you to talk to us.”

I exhaled slowly.

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