Page 45 of Rescuing Nathaniel

“You know, Ava, you have to see now what your father and I have been telling you all along. You are not cut out for this kind of life. Why don’t you just come home with us? I’ve already talked to Bentley, and he’s still willing to marry you. I think that would be best for everyone.”

This time it wasn't terror that came bubbling out of her mouth, it was pure anger.

Shoving herself up on the bed, wincing only slightly at the tug on the wound on her stomach, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and pushed to her feet, pleased when she didn't sway or wobble. “You know what, mother? You need to leave. Now.”

“Ava, please, you're being a drama queen. Again.” Her mother tutted disapprovingly, and she hated that her panic attack had been witnessed by someone who would use it against her.

“A drama queen? Really, mother? It’s called a panic attack, and I had it because I was just kidnapped and held captive by organ traffickers. You know they took my kidney, right? They would have kept taking organs until there was nothing left. You say I'm not cut out for this life, but I escaped. Me. I got out. No one else. I’m the one who found a way to get to that lifeboat and off the ship. I set in motion my own rescue, so don’t youeverimply that I'm weak and pathetic again.”

Pausing to drag in a breath, Ava realized she was shaking with rage.

Never in her life had she unloaded like this on her parents. She’d stood up for herself but she’d never yelled like this.

It felt good.

“You know what's pathetic? The way you treat me. The way you treat other people. I already told you I don’t want to marry that stuffy, smug, conceited Bentley, who’s two decades older than me, and I haven’t changed my mind. Because of you and your snobby attitude, the people I care about, the people I want around me while I heal, are keeping their distance and I won't allow it any longer. Get out. Now.”

“You don’t mean that, Ava.”

“Never meant anything more in my life, Mother. Leave, and don’t come back. I don’t want to see you again.”

The sad fact was that it was the truth.

If her parents couldn’t even be bothered to act like they cared about her after she’d almost died, she didn't want them in her life. Besides, they’d already cut her off financially when she was eighteen and refused to follow their orders any longer, so what else could they do to her?

Maybe if she could get rid of them Nathaniel would consider coming back. Even if it was just as her friend and nothing more ever developed between them. She’d take friendship with the man who saved her life over the people who had given her life any day.

* * *

March 5th

1:32 P.M.

He should head home.

Nathaniel knew that as he sat in his hotel room staring into space, not really seeing anything at all.

There was nothing for him to do there. Going back to see Ava would be ridiculous now that he knew the kind of world she’d come from and what she was no doubt accustomed to. Because he knew if he even gave himself an inch, he’d wind up taking a mile, he hadn't answered when she’d called, nor had he replied to her text.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, it was because he wanted totoomuch.

If you’d asked him a week ago, he would have quite calmly and confidently explained that given his awful childhood and the propensity for addiction that might run through his veins he was content to remain single for the rest of his life. Not just content, but happy to remain single. He had his job and his team and didn't need anything else. Certainly not a relationship that would require him to be vulnerable with another person and hand over the opportunity for them to hurt him.

Being with Ava would guarantee that he’d wind up hurt. How could he not? She came from a world where everything was at her fingertips, and he came from a world where he had to fight for every scrap he got.

So making a clean break and heading back home was the smarter option. Yet every time he opened his phone intending to book a plane ticket, he couldn’t seem to follow through. There was nothing there for him, he should leave. His duty to Ava was completed, and even if he was able to figure something out with Ava, no way would her parents ever accept him, and he could hardly ask her to choose him over her own family.

Stuck.

That’s how he felt.

Unable to completely go back to his comfortable single existence now that he’d gotten the smallest taste of what it would be like to take the plunge and allow someone else in. But also, unable to go forward because he already knew that nothing was ever going to happen with him and Ava, Nathaniel didn't know what to do.

It wasn’t like he could stay there forever, and yet the thought of heading home left him feeling like he’d been doused in icy water.

A knock at his door had him jumping to his feet. Could it be Ava? She should be in the hospital still but maybe they’d discharged her this morning. She’d tracked down his phone number, so he wouldn't put it above her to have tracked down the hotel he was staying at too.

The idea of seeing her again left him feeling a whole lot more buzzed than it should given he’d spent most of the last twenty-four hours convincing himself there would never be anything more between him and Ava than the fact that he’d saved her life in Mexico.

---