Page 77 of Cruel Devotion

“No. You’re nothing more than a person who gave birth to me. You’ve never loved me, never respected me, and you never will. I’m done with you. I’m done with you and your husband.”

Saying those words felt so freeing. So fucking freeing. Liberating myself from my parents was like shedding a lifetime of the heaviest rocks. They tumbled off my shoulders, and for the first time—ever—I could stand tall and breathe freely. Their expectations didn’t shackle me anymore. The sad longing for their love or approval didn’t tether me to anxiety.

“I’m done,” I repeated, making sure she saw the seriousness on my face.

“Oh, you think you know it all, huh?” She crossed her arms. “This is the choice you think you want to make?” She gestured at Haley in my arms. “You think you want to choose being trapped with a whore like her, expected to pay for her baby and go nowhere with your life?”

“I don’tthinkthis is the choice I’m making. Itisthe choice I’m making.”

I chose Haley.

I chose the baby we’d raise.

I chose to gamble on our love lasting forever.

I choseus.

27

HALEY

Eli chose me.

It filled my heart with relief that he’d said those words out loud, so confidently and without pause to his mother.

But this wasn’t the first time he’d chosen me.

He chose me when he stopped bullying me.

He chose me when he didn’t go through with Preston’s dare to take my virginity at that winter formal.

Eli choseme, the one no one wanted in Marsten.

And with how tightly he hugged me close, not wavering in his stance with me, he proved that he would choose me again and again.

“This is it,” Mrs. Young repeated. “I’ve had enough of you. You can move out of that dorm now.” Tipping her chin up, she sneered at him with such loathing and hatred, I couldn’t understand how she’d view her own flesh and blood like that. I only learned that I was pregnant an hour ago, and already, I was fiercely protective of him or her and I would never, ever treat my baby with anything but love.

“Your father and I signed the dormitory contract, and I will go straight to the office and cancel it.”

She was kicking him out! If I needed another demonstration of how heartless she was, this was it.

What kind of a parent threw their child out like this?

“Fine.” Eli didn’t back down. He didn’t budge or change his voice at all, taking it as she dished it out.

“And you can expect all your things at home to be at the curb by the end of the night.” She leaned forward, pointing at us. “You are disowned. Do you hear me, Eli? You are no longer a son to me or your father.”

“I get the picture.”

She huffed at his blunt reply. “And if—no, notif,when—you have to pay back all those scholarship funds, you’re doing it on your own.”

“I expected nothing else.”

“You’re on your own,” she growled.

“No, I’m not.” He sighed, as if it were a massive relief to say that. He truly believed he wasn’t alone, and I would make sure he never was.

“I’ll never be alone again. Not with her.” He kissed the top of my head. “Not with the family we’ll start.”

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