Page 90 of Running from Drac
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Amber
“Where is she?” I growl the second I step through our door and find the living room empty. Poppy’s in the kitchen cooking something on the stove, but she barely looks at me.
She knows something, otherwise she’d be chatting my ear off.
“Poppy, where the fuck is she?”
She abruptly turns around and pretends to take an Airpod out of her ear. There’s no fucking Airpod.
“Amber? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Where’s Pippa, Poppy?”
She shrugs. “She was here a few minutes ago. Maybe you just missed her?”
“Her car’s out front.”
“Maybe she’s in the shower?”
My fingers ball into fists by my sides, the rage only building. Eddie’s right, we can’t have her in our wedding. Not after everything she’s done and the hell she’s fucking put me through.
I’ve been thinking about this the entire drive home. Pippa’s gone from one of my closest friends to my mortal enemy, one who’s about to lose every strand of hair on her head if I get ahold of her.
“You look angry, Amber.” Poppy wipes her hands on her apron, and turns to face me. “Talk to me, what’s going on?”
“You tell me, Poppy. You and your sister are the ones hiding shit from me.”
“What the hell did I do?”
“It’s what you didn’t do, Poppy. You didn’t protect me.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’ve done nothing but protect you since we met, Amber. We all have. We’ve told you what we’ve thought about Eddie, and you blatantly ignored us. It’s not my fault you’re a glutton for punishment.”
“I fucking love him, Poppy.”
She shrugs. “But is love enough? Can love survive everything he’s put you through? Because it can’t, Amber, not really. He doesn’t deserve your love or protection. Isn’t that what you’re doing right now? Protecting the last strand of a frayed roped that’s holding you two together?”
“Shut up.”
“I won’t. Not this time. You’re getting married in a week, Amber. Once you do, there’s no turning back. Once you’re married, you’re tied together for life. Is that what you really want? To be tied to a man that will cheat on you and try to pretend like it’s all your fault?”
Tears fall down my face, but I can’t keep up with them.
“I just want everything to go back to normal. Like the day I met him… our first date. I want that Eddie back.”
“That Eddie was fake, Amber. The real Eddie is the one you’ve been trying to hold together—the one that disappoints you repeatedly. That’s who he is.”
I shake my head, wiping my face with the back of my hand, teeth clenched so hard my jaw trembles. “You’re wrong. You don’t know him like I do.”
“I know what he’s done to you. Do you think it’s easy for me to continuously be here for you when I’m constantly picking up the pieces of you that he shattered? I love you, Amber. That’s why I’m saying this to you. I don’t want you to make a mistake. I can’t watch you hurt anymore.” Poppy’s voice trembles, but it only fuels the inferno burning inside of me.
“Then tell your sister to back the hell off!”
Poppy’s eyes widen as a door shuts, and a floorboard creaks behind me.
