Page 55 of Ordinary Secrets

Not a chance.

He probably did that on purpose—gave me time so I’d think I was safe and lower my defenses before he came back to haunt me.

A fist bangs against my door three times. “You little bitch. My fuckin’ nose is bleeding.”

Good!I need to call the cops. This time, he didn’t just verbally harass me. Hehitme. The police have to do something about him. They just have to.

Now, where’s my pho—I almost face-palm myself. My phone is in my purse. The one that Nathan chucked to the ground on the other side of this door.

With my heart still pounding and my tongue throbbing, I steal a look through the peephole. It’s too dark to see anything, so I flip the light on. A dim yellow glow illuminates my front stoop.

Nathan’s not there. Neither is my purse.Did he take it?

I don’t dare twist the lock open to check. Not yet. Not until I know he’s gone. Knowing him, he’s probably hiding around the corner, waiting for me to come out.

“I asked you first!” Nathan barks.

Who’s he yelling at?As if he can hear me, I tiptoe toward the living room window and peer out between a small opening in the blinds. Sure enough, there’s that lame excuse for a human standing on the sidewalk with a phone pressed to his ear.

But not just any phone.Myphone.

“Who are you? Why are you calling my girlfriend?”

Is he seriously still calling me that?

“She’s not available right now. How ’bout you give me a message, and I’ll relay it to her?”

Who’s on the other line?No one ever calls me besides Javina and my grandparents, and Nathan’s not brave enough to talk to any of them that way. My grandparents don’t even know he’s abusive. They think we broke up because he met someone else.

As he treads farther from my window, he says words I can’t make out. All I can see is the side of his face when it twists from anger to something dark and dangerous.

With the bottom of his shirt, he wipes off the blood trickling down his nose. He’s back to yelling again. “The fuck did you just say?” A short pause. “You listen here, douchebag. If you think you can come here and kick my ass?—”

I don’t stay to listen to the rest because it finally clicks who has called me. Within seconds, I’m out the door, because the last thing I want is for Trey to be involved in this.

“Nathan! Stop!” I run to him, reaching for my phone.

Big mistake.

He backhands my face with so much vigor that I plummet to the ground. Before I can even think about standing, he grabs me by my hair and jerks me up. I scream and punch at him, but it does nothing.

“Are you seein’ this Trey guy?” Nathan holds my phone out to me. Trey’s name appears on the screen, the call still in progress.

“Arella?”

“Let go of me!”

Nathan tightens his grip on my hair. “What did I say about seeing other men? I’ll show you what happens when you disobey me.”

16

TREY

I’mon my way home from dinner with Liz when I call Arella. I’m excited to ask her if she likes the flowers I sent—until a man answers her phone.

At first, I play it cool and ask who he is. Once he gets angry at me for no goddamn reason and calls Arella his girlfriend, things aren’t cool anymore.

“Could I speak to Arella, please?” I try to keep my tone patient but fail. One hand is on the wheel while my other presses the phone to my ear.

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