Page 33 of From Our First

“Please don’t, that’s so cliché.” Her cousin rolled his eyes.

“It is none of your concern what I do in this home or this state or this world. You need to go. Now. I will see you at the lawyer’s office. But I am done with this. I am done with you. You thought you could control me? Fuck you. You never could. All you did was ruin everything. Take away all that I’ve ever wanted. Over and over again. You took my happiness, my future. You took my chance to say goodbye to my grandmother. To Nate. You took everything. All because you thought you knew best. I came out here because I know better. I know what I need. And it’s not you.”

“I do wish you would stop with all the melodramatics.” Her mother sighed, sounding far more melodramatic to me.

She stood up, brushed off her already impeccably clean suit, then picked up a bag and walked away without another word. Her father glared at me and then pushed past me.

Her cousin simply smirked. “Are you sure the photos weren’t of you? You always were a whore.”

I took a step forward, but before I could reach out and punch the guy, her cousin staggered back, Myra having slapped him hard across the face. She went at him again, and I looped an arm around her waist, pulling her back.

“He looks like the kind of man who will sue,” I whispered into her ear, and she froze against me, her soft curves molding to the hardness of my chest.

“Go,” she said through gritted teeth. The other man rubbed his jaw, smirked again, and then strode out. He slammed the front door, and I stood there, Myra in my arms. And then I realized that I needed to let her go.

I didn’t want to.

“Please take your hands off me.”

I released her quickly and took a step back. “I’m sorry.”

She turned slowly. “Sorry for what? Touching me? Not letting me hit him again? Or for believing that I could be the person my parents led you to believe I was?”

“I... I don’t know what to say, Myra.”

My heart thudded in my ears, and everything came back to me.

“I thought... If you would have seen the photos…”

“But I didn’t see them. You pushed me out without even letting me speak. You believed my parents.”

“I believed what I thought was evidence.”

“So, you’re a detective now?”

Tears streamed down her face, and I swallowed hard, not knowing what to say.

“I... I didn’t... I didn’t know what to believe. I saw the bracelet, and everything I thought about you got twisted.”

“Because you thought I was capable of that kind of deception.”

I shook my head. “Because I thought you were always so much better than me. That I didn’t deserve you.”

“So you pushed me away?” she shouted.

“I thought you could do better, and believed you had. So, yes, I was hurt. I pushed you away. I thought you had cheated on me and I said some horrible things. And I hated you. But I was so fucking wrong. I see that now. And I’m never going to be able to take that back. I’m so sorry, Myra.

“Sorry doesn’t help,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“You had the evidence they provided, yet you never believed me. No wonder you didn’t want to forgive me, even though I wasn’t the one who did anything.”

“Myra—” I began.

“No. I think you need to go, too. Because I need to break down, and you can’t be here for that. You broke me once before, Nathan. I won’t let you do it again.”

“I understand.” I put my hands into my pockets and let out a breath. “I need to think about everything that just happened. As you do. I want you to know that I’m going to do everything in my power to try and make amends or something. I’m so fucking sorry, Myra.”

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