Page 52 of Against All Odds

I open the text because I know this will never ever end, and Ana will just keep pushing.

I want you to stop pushing me.

Ana

I bet you do, but that’s a big fat no.

I sigh. “You’re annoying, you know that?”

“You called me because you wanted my advice,” Ana says with her stern tone laced in each word. “I know that you’re afraid and that telling people what you want or need is foreign to you,and I love you, so know that when I say this, but it’s why you’re in this position. You would never tell Dylan how you felt. You let him decide your life. The last real decision you made on your own was the college you went to, and even that, you just ran from the confrontation of your feelings. I get it, Vi. I really do. You’re so easygoing and don’t ever push back, but you have to fight for yourself now.”

I stay silent as my throat grows tight. Tears build behind my eyes, and I want so badly to shove them back, but instead I let them fall. “I don’t know how.”

“Oh, my sweet friend, you are right now. You’re in Ember Falls, you filed for divorce, you didn’t let Dylan convince you to let him do it or whatever bullshit his PR team would’ve pushed for. You got a job thousands of miles away. You did that. Look at how you handled today. You’re fighting, but now you have to push against the instinct to protect yourself and take what you want.”

An unease sits in my chest, making it hard to breathe just thinking about it. Every instinct in me says to just slink away and be the good girl who is quiet and accommodating.

But that girl was broken.

That girl was used, and it wasn’t good. It was horrible.

It led me here, and I don’t want to be her anymore.

It won’t be easy, that’s for damn sure. I’m not even sure I can do it, but Ana’s right. I did all those things, and I didn’t ask a single person for permission.

I did it for me.

I glance at the clock on my bedside table and smile when I notice it’s officially tomorrow.

“Okay, here’s what I would say to him.”

I pull up my text message and tell Ana exactly what I would say to Everett.

It’s tomorrow, and I want you. Come to my bed and let me show you what I regret.

I hit send.

“Too stupid?” I ask her.

“What?”

“The text!”

Ana clears her throat. “You didn’t send me a text.”

My eyes go wide and I pull my phone down. “Oh God,” I breathe.

“No! You didn’t!” Ana says with a laugh. “You sent it to him?”

“I did. Oh, God.”

I’m going to have to move. Sell my grandmother’s house and be homeless. No way in hell can I face this man ever again.

“What did it say?” she screeches.

I read it back to her and she is silent.

“Ana? What do I do now?”

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