Page 59 of Sapphire

“The best. The fucking best. No, the best thing is for you to be here with us. We love you, Zoe. We fucking love you,” Mateo screams at me.

He looks so forlorn and confused, and all I want to do is rush toward him, wrap my arms around him, and tell him that I love him. I love them both so much, but that will only prolong the inevitable.

“Did something happen at that party?” Mateo asks as he rushes toward me, grabbing me.

I shake my head slowly, but my entire body is filled with panic over how close Mateo is to my secret.

Those chocolate eyes narrow on me. “You’re a fucking liar, Zoe. I know you. I know you better than yourself it seems. Something spooked you at the party and what just happened between us was your goodbye gift, wasn’t it?”

How the hell did he guess all that?

“Tell me that’s not true?” Tomas asks, standing right beside him.

The two of them looming over me, I bend down and grab my evening gown off the floor and hold it against me.

“Why won’t you look at us, Zoe?” Mateo sneers as he grabs my chin and makes me look at him.

I can’t because if I do, I will spill everything inside of me. I need to keep the distance between us.

“Did you remember something?” Mateo asks firmly.

How does he know?

I swallow against his firm hand which makes him scoff.

“You did, didn’t you?” he asks, letting go of my chin.

“Is that why you were missing tonight?” Tomas asks.

“Missing?” Mateo yells, turning his fury onto his lover.

“I couldn’t find her for part of the night. But when I did, she was stepping out of the bathrooms and said she wasn’t feeling very well,” Tomas explains.

I raise my face to the two men. “You are safer without me. Please, you can’t ask any more questions. I don’t have any answers to give. All I know is that it’s for the best.”

“What the hell kind of cryptic bullshit answer is that?” Mateo curses at me. “You are not fucking leaving here till you tell us what is going on.”

“I can’t.”

“Are you in trouble?” Tomas asks calmly.

These boys are too perceptive over me. I try and hide my panic at how close he is to my truth.

“You remember, don’t you?”

I don’t answer him.

“Zoe, answer Tomas.” Mateo grunts.

“It doesn’t matter what I remember. What we had can’t be anymore,” I explain to them as I take a couple of steps away from them.

“How can you say that it doesn’t matter?” Tomas asks sternly.

“I’m not who you think I am,” I scream at them in frustration, anger, and worry.

“We don’t care who you were before, Zoe. We love the person you are now, right here in this moment. You have my heart just as much as Tomas does,” Mateo yells at me.

“I don’t deserve it.”

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