Page 133 of With Wine Comes War

On the way to my car, my phone started ringing. It was Harrison. I answered, since it was probably something to do with the non-profit.

“Hey Harrison. What’s up?”

“Alex, I know Roman doesn’t want to be there tomorrow, but I do. I want to make sure you know you have the King’s support. All of them.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back the tears for too much longer after hearing that.

“Thank you, Harrison,” I managed to choke out.

He said, “I talked to your brother Edward after he reached out to Roman, and he’s going to be there too.” Now the tears are flowing. My brother never called me to tell me he was coming. I just figured they thought I was nuts too and wouldn’t want to see it. I could barely get out another thank you.

“See you tomorrow.” I sat in my car and cried.

When I got home, I took a long hot shower, changed into comfy sweats, ate dinner and cried some more. This was the loneliest feeling in the world without Roman, and he wasn’t going to be there tomorrow either. I sent out one text before I decided to go to sleep for the night.

ME: “If you pray for me, that will be enough to know you’re with me and support me.” I waited for what seemed like forever for a response, but it was only about one minute…

ROMAN: “Always.” Thank God.

***

The alarm scared me this morning. I thought I was in the ring, and it was time to fight. Tanner seemed even bigger in my dream. I needed to wipe the sweat off my head and get in the shower. I’m not going to the gym this morning. I’ve had plenty of workouts this week.

My phone was blowing up with texts, but I only looked at two of them. The one from Jack telling me to meet him at his house so we could ride together, and the one from Bruce telling me to meet him in the office as soon as I got there. I threw the phone in my purse and didn’t look at it again. I had to stay out of my head, and I didn’t need anyone telling me not to do this. There was something I needed, however. I ran back to my bedroom and grabbed that gold cross Mrs. Santoro gave me out of my jewelry box and threw it in my bag.

Jack and I pulled up to the back door of the studio and entered there. We went straight to Bruce’s office. We didn’t want to get caught up in any questions from reporters.

Bruce said, “Alex, are you ready?” I took several breaths as I thought about what I was about to do.

“I guess I better be.”

Jack said, “I’m going to go out there for a minute and see who’s here.”

As soon as Jack was out of earshot I said, “Bruce, I’m going kill this guy.” He looked a little scared.

“What do you mean? Like literally?”

Yes.My hands were shaking, and I could barely breathe.

“I don’t know. I’ve never felt rage like this in my entire life. I don’t think it’s good. I need to know someone’ll stop me if I go too far.” He grabbed both of my hands and first told me to calm down and breathe.

“What if you’re just fighting back?” He tried to reassure me.

Self-defense is definitely not what I’m talking about right now.

“If he’s still fighting, then that’s not what I mean. I mean if he’s out cold and I keep going.”

He started laughing.Not helping at all.Does he think I can’t knock him out? Right now, I know I can.

“If he’s out and you’re still going after him, I’ll make sure to stop you, since the only rule is the fight ends if someone is out or gives up.”

I let out a deep breath and someone knocked on the door. I turned around and Roman’s mom was standing in the doorway. My heart sank. I didn’t think she would want to see this.

She came right over and hugged me. “You be careful in there. I know you can do this, but I would’ve never wished for it.”

I held the emotions back and said, “Lisette, will you still help me when this is over? I have something to ask you, after.” She put her hands on my face.

“Of course I’ll help you, as long as you need me to.” Now I can do this.

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