Page 128 of The Accidental Wife

“Look at her! Take a good look at what Cole is doing to her. There’s nothing left of her anymore. Just leave her the fuck alone. You think Cole is the only one suffering?! She’s at breaking point! Are you trying to drive her to the point of insanity!” Aimee shouts angrily. “I hope for both your sakes that Cole is okay, but I will not allow you both to destroy my friend. She’s been through enough, now get the fuck out!” Aimee exclaims, coming to my side as I rock back and forth on the floor with my head in my arms sobbing.

Sophie walks out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind her. “Shayla.” Aimee kneels next to me, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into her chest. “Shhh, it’s okay, she’s gone, babe, she’s gone.”

“He’s gone, and it’s all my fault.” I wail, and Aimee shakes her head tightening her hold on me.

“He’s not gone. He’ll be back, I know he will.” She reassures me and helps me up to my feet. “Come on, the stupid bitch cut your cheek when she hit you; you’re bleeding. Let's clean you up.” I allow Aimee to help me to the bathroom. I was utterly defeated. I couldn’t feel anything but the ache in my chest. The night just drags on as I sit by my window, staring out at the dark sky, silently pleading for him to hear my cries and come back.

“Please, Cole, wherever you are, please hear me and come back,” I whisper, closing my eyes. I press the photo of us on my phone to my chest, sobbing desperately. I dial his number just to hear his voice on the voicemail. ‘Hi, you’ve reached Tristan Hoult. I’m not available to take your call right now. If it’s urgent, please leave me a message, and I’ll come back to you when I’m available.’ I replayed that message over and over and over again, repeatedly hoping it would ease my pain, but it didn’t. It made it worse. I hadn’t slept in days, I couldn’t stop crying. My head was throbbing, and my body trembling with trepidation.

* * *

The next morningI sat in the shower for an hour, the water just beating down on my exhausted body.

I was convinced he was gone forever; it’s been three days and no sign of him. I was waiting for the bad news to come at any moment, mentally trying to prepare myself, but something inside me wouldn’t let me believe it.

I got out of the shower and wrapped the towel around myself when I heard Aimee calling my name.

“Shayla?!” I open the door to the bathroom and look at her. She’s on the phone with someone. “It’s Josh, Cole’s back.” I gasp, and it felt as though an invisible force hit me. My knees shook and gave away. Aimee drops the phone and catches me as I fall to the floor panting, trying to catch my breath and choke on a strangled sob. “Jesus, Shay. He’s okay, he’s okay, shh babe.”

“Where is he?” I ask, looking up at her, and she wipes my tears away, her own blue eyes pooled with tears.

“At his place.” I clamber up to my feet and rush to my bedroom as Aimee watches me tear the towel off my body and throw on whatever clothes I could find, which was a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. “Shayla, where are you going?”

“I have to see him,” I say in a flurry as I grab my car keys and rush to the door.

“Shayla, let me drive you. You’re in no state to drive.” She tells me. I nod and toss her my keys, and we rush out of the apartment. My heart was hammering against my ribcage the whole way there, a million questions on my mind. I was relieved and hurt, and most of all, angry with him. How dare he put me through this. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I saw him. Was I going to scream at him or throw myself into his arms and tell him I love him? My emotions were all over the place. He was alive, and that’s all I cared about at that moment.

As we pull up to his apartment, I run out of the car toward the building, not even acknowledging the group of photographers gathered outside his apartment with his security team holding them back. “There's Shayla! Shayla is Tristan back?! Is he well? Please give us some information!” They call out to me, but it falls on deaf ears as I race through his building, pushing the button to the elevator a thousand times as I wait impatiently for it to descend to the ground floor. I was tempted to take the stairs, but he lives on the thirtieth floor. I’d collapse and die by the time I got up there. The elevator pings, and I rush in, pushing the button again till the doors close.

I was shaking like a leaf, and it felt like the slowest elevator journey ever, as I stare at the numbers at the top anxiously. “Come on, come on, come onnnn.” I whimper and don’t even wait till the door fully opens before I run out and down the corridor toward Cole’s apartment. I push the code in with trembling fingers and wait for the light to go green before opening the door and walking inside. Almost immediately, I hear shouting. Cole and Josh were screaming at one another.

I walk in and watch as Josh punches Cole in the face. “If you love her so fucking much, why don’t you go be with her? Huh?” Josh says and spits out blood on the floor. “I’ll gladly step out of your way, go on, go be with her, bro!” He shouts, pointing at the door.

“Shut the fuck up!” Cole growls irately.

“Truth hurts, doesn’t it, brother? You can’t be with her because you’re getting married and having a baby with your ex— the same ex you were in love with and using Shayla to get back at.” He laughs bitterly. “You can be pissed off with me all you want, but YOU fucked this one up all on your own, bro.”

“And you think you have what it takes to make her happy, do you?!” Cole questions walking toward Josh.

“Cole, she would have been mine right now if you hadn’t swooped in that night, she would have been MY girl! She would have been in love with me! And yes, I fucking do.” He hollers, stepping up to Cole.

“You should have worked up the courage and asked her out then, you fucking wimp! Shayla is off-limits to you!” Cole shouts, fisting Josh’s shirt and bringing his face close to his. I couldn’t watch anymore; my anger hit a whole other level.

“ENOUGH!” I scream, glaring at both of them, my chest rising and falling with every desperate breath I took. Cole lifts his gaze to me, and his eyes soften instantly when our eyes meet. He drops his hands from Josh’s shirt and looks me over. “Josh, leave us,” I tell him, my voice hoarse.

“Shayla…” he interjects.

I look at him. “Please...” He nods and stops when he sees the bruise and cut on my left cheek.

“Shayla, what happened to your face?” He questions, reaching out to touch me, but I move my face away.

“Leave us,” I whisper pleadingly, and he nods and walks out of the apartment, leaving Cole and me alone. I stood there looking at him, tears streaming down my face while he stood staring at me apologetically.

“Shayla, what happened to you?” He questions, walking toward me. I reach up and slap him hard across the face. Cole lifts his eyes to mine—a look of hurt flashes in his eyes as they well up with tears.

“That’s what happened to my face.” I hiss angrily, and he frowns. “How could you do that to me?! I thought you were DEAD!” I scream sobbing, I shove him hard, and he stumbles back, swallowing thickly while he watches me. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through the past few days?!”

“I’m sorry.” He apologises, taking a step toward me. I back away, sobbing.

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