Page 22 of Falling Hard

Chapter 7

Emmie

Just as I made it into the clubhouse, my arm was caught from behind me, and his hand wrapped around my wrist.

“Emmie, let me explain.” Maiden words were tight, and I heard the pain in them. He wanted to explain how he broke his promise to me?

“Nothing to explain.” I looked him in the eye. “You lied,” I added with a hiss. “Now let go of me.” I pulled on my wrist, but his grip got tighter.

“I didn’t have a choice, Emmie. It wasn’t my news to break. It was your father’s, and something got in him today that made him want to tell you.”

Angry tears ran down my cheeks. “It doesn’t matter. Once again, I see you are more loyal to my father than me.”

That was how it always was with boys. The club came first, and everything else came second if not last. They didn’t care about who got hurt or who they hurt by putting that club first.

Maiden answered to my father, and that would always be the case, which meant he would never really respect me before his president.

Maiden’s expression hardened. “Don’t fucking put this on me. It wasn’t my place. You’ve got to understand it was a mistake. I fucked up the night I touched you.”

I scoffed, “I’m a mistake?” I wanted to strangle him. Yes. Choking him would give me pleasure. How could he stand there and say I was a mistake? How could his lips even wrap around the words?

I couldn’t mask my expression, which clearly showed how much his words had affected me. Shocking me, hurting me, and twisting my heart all at once.I fucked up the night I touched you. His words repeated in my head.

What did you expect, Emmie? No one wants you. I swallowed sharply as I heard the voices creeping into my mind. Fuck, this had sparked them. I thought about their hurtful words before about how everyone lies and everyone leaves.

“Who’s a mistake?”

I went rigid, and Maiden slowly turned around to see my father standing there, trying to contain his rage. His hair was brushed back, clearly, from all the times he had run his hand through it due to stress, and his face was slowly getting redder by the second.

He raised a finger at Maiden, and it might as well have had the power to cut off heads. “You fuck my daughter?”

“No,” I interjected on Maiden’s behalf. “He is talking about spending the week with me. That us getting close was a mistake.” I tried to explain, not knowing why I was protecting Maiden after he just called me a mistake.

I looked Maiden in the eye. “Don’t worry. We won’t be repeating it. I don’t want to take up any more of the enforcer’s time.” Snatching my wrist from his grasp, I took off.

I lasted a total of two seconds, and as soon as my back turned, tears filled my eyes.

I was a mistake.

That’s all you will ever be, Emmeline. Your mother didn’t want you, your father doesn’t need you, and Maiden thinks you are nothing but a mistake.

My hand wrapped around my bedroom door, and I tried to suppress the voices, but they were getting louder.You heard him, Emmie. He said you were a mistake.My hand gripped the door handle tighter.He fucked up by touching you. He regrets it. You saw his face. He regrets touching you.

Well, I didn’t regret it happening. I clenched my eyes shut.

Don’t force anyone to be with you, Emmeline. It’s time you end this. You know where the razor is, and you know what to do.

“Stop it!” I snapped under pressure.

“You okay?”

My head flung up to see Critter standing there, looking puzzled, and I realized how I must have looked like the mad hatter. “Just talking to myself,” I answered and went to open my door.

But he leaned against the passage wall with a smirk on his face. “Family trait, hey?”

I frowned and then remembered he was talking about Libby. He and Libby had always been close. “Must be,” I answered and found the voices silencing as I spoke with Critter. As if he had some superpower that was calming.

“Well, then, I know just what to do when a Paxton girl is upset.”

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