Page 68 of Altered

With the exception of one hasty visit to urgent care, where I had lied through my teeth in order to get my stitches out and wound treated, and then a hasty trip to the pharmacy to pick upPlan B, I hadn't been outside the four walls of this house.

I missed the book signing in Aspen, which had cost me eighty plus readers and had blackened my professional name.

I hadn't seen Teagan, or Noah, or my brothers.

I was completely isolated.

My only saving grace was my phone.

Text messaging had become my best friend again, my connection to the outside world.

My parents were still in Vale with the twins, but they wouldn’t stay there forever.

Eventually they would come home, and then I would have to face my demons.

I knew from the countless texts and phone calls I received daily from Teagan that she knew something was up.

I'd spoken to my father several times on the phone, but I knew that once he got home, a phone call wouldn’t suffice.

I would have to figure this mess out.

I just… didn’t know how to tell them.

How to face them.

Everything that had happened had warped my mind.

I was scarred, and scared, anddrowningin deceit.

There was only one person I needed, one person I knew could fix this.

And he was gone.

"This is all your fault," Annabelle spat, drawing me back to the present. "I hope you realize that. He's in this mess because of you."

"You've said," I replied flatly, not caring what she thought anymore.

"So why haven't you tried to do something about it?" she hissed, furious.

I had.

When I had broached the subject several weeks ago, I had been told to mind my own goddamn business, and when I had tried to intervene and take the bottle from him, I had narrowly avoided a glass bottle to the head when he threw it at the fireplace – that I had been standing in front of.

After that, I had given up and decided that Jordan could do whatever the hell he wanted to do.

It wasn’t down to me to save him anymore.

I had devoted too many years of my life to a man who didn’t want me to save him.

He just wanted me tobe there.

Well,herewasn’t enough for me anymore, and if that made me a bad person, then so be it.

And if I truly was, as Annabelle had called me on countless occasions, a selfish, cold hearted bitch, then that's what I was.

Lying to myself, hiding who I truly was, and trying to please everyone in my life had gotten me into this damn mess in the first place.

"Hope!" Annabelle hissed, trying to gain my attention.

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