Page 56 of Surrender

I allow my body to roll back to the bed. The light of the moon leaves its gentle beams across the mattress and now my eyes. Ava’s words from our last night on the island scream their haunting prophecy in my ear. We’re under the same moon, Bella. I still love you.

Chapter fifteen

Ava

I don’t know if I have any more tears left in my body.

I hid my face from the Lyft driver on the ride back home last night. I’m glad Sylvia was out when I got home. I immediately went to my room and closed the door. I needed to be alone to figure out what the hell I was going to do. I lay down on my bed in my dress and cried myself to sleep. I have no concept of what time it was or when it happened.

The next thing I remember is rain on my window and a soft hand smoothing the hair away from my face. My eyes are hard to open from being so swollen and encrusted with last night’s makeup. Finally, I’m able to focus on my best friend in front of me.

“Ava, what happened?” Sylvia whispers. “I woke up early this morning randomly to a friend request, followed by direct messages from Rafael, asking if you were home, if you were okay.”

I press my hands deep into the mattress and push myself up to sit. My head hurts as bad as if I’d been out on an all-night bender. “It’s over.”

“What is, honey?”

“Whatever Rafael and I had going on. It’s finished.”

“Why? I don’t understand. He sounds so upset. You look torn apart.”

“He lied to me, Syl. He has a girlfriend. A beautiful, powerful, Greek goddess girlfriend.”

“Wait, what? You two have been spending so much time together. What are you talking about?”

“Do you know the name Nicolette Rieti?”

“It sounds familiar. Wait. Hold on.” She pulls her phone from the side pocket of her yoga pants. I watch her scroll through social media until her eyes widen. “She’s on his management team.”

“She does more than manage him,” I tell her. “She manages him.”

Sylvia sighs as she reaches for the zipper on the back of my dress. I go to swat her hand away, but she takes mine instead. “Are you sure you aren’t misreading things? I know a man in love. He loves you.”

“Well, he may love me, but he loves her too. You should have seen them last night. She had her hand wrapped on his arm all the time. She looked at him like she knew things about him. You know what I mean by that. She knows things that I know.”

“Did you ask him about it?”

My perfect red dress, the one that I adore, the one I wanted to drive him crazy with, I allow it to slide into a puddle on the floor. “I didn’t have to.”

My bestie reaches over into a basket of clean clothes at the foot of the bed to hand me something to wear. “This is going to sound bitchier than I want it to, but don’t you think you owe it to him to ask?”

The neck of my T-shirt is barely past my ears before I roar back in exhaustion. “Are you telling me this is my fault? Who’s side are you on anyway?”

“Yours. All day, every day. Don’t ask me that.”

“It doesn’t sound like it. Syl, he’s fucking lied to me since day one. I heard Nico more than once while we were in the Turks and he blew it off like it was a buddy, not short for Nicolette. They all asked about her in a couple languages. I can only imagine what they thought about me.”

“Wait. So he took you to a place she’s been?”

“Yep. He told me it was just one of his favorite places and he wanted to share it with me.”

“Do you think he lied about everything? Fuck. I don’t even like asking that question.”

“Do I think he lied about loving me? No. I think in his mind, he does. I don’t know if he really knows what love is though.”

“Did the bastard say he was sorry?”

“He did. Too little too late. I found a quiet place in a hallway so I could be alone and he followed me. He begged me not to leave him. I told him he knew lying was a deal breaker and this was a big one. He was on his knees in front of me and I left him there after I said goodbye. I couldn’t be near him or anyone. I cried in the bathroom for a while, then I came home.”

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