Page 54 of Cursed to Be Mine
At least Nick didn’t come back to my room after to tell me goodbye, that he was going home. He just ghosted me, and I cried myself to sleep for months.
Not that Ma noticed.
Not that she showed one ounce of fucking guilt or regret.
And although I had loved Nick a lot more than I ever cared for Daniel, this betrayal hurts more.
The final straw.
The crack that’s splitting me open.
Opening me up to all her bullshit and abuse.
And ithurts.
It hurts so fucking much knowing the only person I have in this world, my only family…
Broken sobs, unable to pass my too-tight throat, pour into my tears. I turn the tap up higher, letting the water burn me. Seeking a pain to override the agony inside.
The heat barely registers.
I turn it up higher.
Thebangof the gun reverberates inside my skull again, and I drop my arm with a sudden flinch.
Fuck.I knew she hated me. I knew she despised having me and wished I was skinny and succeeding in school and active in something she approved of. Be something she could be proud of. But to actually try to kill me?
To march me out into the woods and have me down on my knees like a fucking execution?
Hot angry tears burn my eyes, so fitting with the steam curling around my body.
“How could youdothat?” I seethe, but the wet cubicle gives no answer to my pain.
I slam a fist into the tiled wall.
Pain shoots up my wrist. It feels so good. The person in the other room shouts at me, but I don’t care.
I hit the wall again.
And again.
And again.
Until my arm shakes from the agony that’s blissful to my broken heart.
My own fucking ma…
Bang!
Sixteen
HIM
I reach Noir Hotel, my magic coiling in my veins. Pain lances through my shadow form, pulling me towards the front door. My girl is two flights up, and I’m forced to take the fucking stairs. A true shadow can climb walls, but our family cannot, our magic limited to only traveling across horizontal surfaces.
So I slip between the cracks and into the lobby, Xander sits behind the desk, his slicked-back black hair glistening under the warm lights. He lifts his head as I start to shift out of my shadow. Then he scrambles to his feet, his arm shooting forward underneath the desk.
“Khalid –”
