Page 13 of Promised

“I have to see her.” I tried to shove her aside, but Britney grabbed my hand, pulling me back.

“You can’t.” Her grip tightened. I grabbed her arm, twisting. I was ready to break it off if she didn’t let me go. A whimper of pain ripped from her lips as she dropped her hand. But she stepped in front of me, blocking my path. “Stop!”

I didn’t know what her fucking problem was, but I was two seconds away from shooting her to get her to move. I didn’t care if she was Ariella’s best friend. Right now, she stood between me and my girl.

“Britney, get out of my way. I need to see her.”

“She doesn’t want to see you.” It was the pity in her voice that made me still. The sympathy in her eyes that made my stomach roll. It was the same look people gave me at my mother’s funeral.

“Of course she does.” The waver in my voice was caused by a different kind of fear now.

“Her father is in there.” Britney’s mouth turned into a small, sad smile.

“No.” I shook my head as I stepped back, trying to hide from her words. “She hates him.”

“Adam, come on.” She sighed softly. That damn pity ripped at my guts. “You’re smarter than this.”

No, there was absolutely no way what she was saying was true. Ariella would never let her father see her before me. She would never choose him over me.

“Fucking move, Britney.” Rage consumed me as I gripped her shoulders, shoving her aside. “She’s having my baby. I’m going to make sure she’s okay.”

“There’s no baby. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” My hand stilled on the door. My heart dropped to my stomach. My eyes slammed shut as agony consumed me. “She decided to end it.”

I couldn’t breathe. My ribs were squeezing my lungs. Somehow, I managed to get out my denial. “She wouldn’t do that.”

But even as I said it, I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t offer her anything. Not the things he could. Money. Power. I was a nobody. I would never be anything other than Matteo’s guard.

But this. An abortion. She wouldn’t do this. Getting rid of our baby was a clear message. It was a bomb blowing up everything we’d had. There was no coming back from it.

“You were a distraction, a way to piss her father off.” Britney sighed like I was an idiot for not knowing the truth. I did know it. I’d just chosen to ignore it. Chosen to believe her when she said she loved me. “But now that there are real consequences, she’s falling in line.”

I felt numb as I watched Britney walk through the doors. I wasn’t sure how long I stood there staring. Long enough that a puddle of water formed around me. My body racked with shivers when I finally turned.

The ring burnt a hole in my pocket as I walked away.

I shouldn’t be surprised; my mother had found the same way out. Death was better than being stuck with me.

8

Ariella

Curled in a chair wearing sweatpants, I stared at the woods outside my childhood window. I watched the leaves sway in the breeze. Listened to the sound of the birds. I’d been sitting here for hours. I’d seen the sunset and then watched as the moon came up.

I thought it would make me feel better. After a surreal dinner with my family where Britney sat where my mother used to and my father acted like the Stepford version of himself, I came here. I still had no idea what to make of his strange behavior, but it wasn’t what bothered me. I couldn’t get my mind off Adam.

The cold look in his eyes haunted me. He’d never treated me like that before. I would’ve preferred his rage. Anything that made me feel like our time together meant something. That I wasn’t just a girl from his past.

How could I be nothing to him when he shaped my life? When our past was my pain? My reason for leaving.

I thought I was doing fine. Never thinking about it. Pushing forward. Filling my time with work. With noise.

But being here brought it all back. Seeing him again. Seeing what I’d lost. I couldn’t stop the memories that came. So I grabbed my sketchbook off the desk and I drew them. Excised the devil inside.

I curled my hands around my stomach as I rolled to the fetal position on the bed. But it didn’t stop the cramps. Shivers racked down my body as I lay paralyzed on the bed.

I breathed slowly through my nose as another wave of nausea hit me. I closed my eyes, trying to push it away. Trying not to feel the pain in my stomach. The agony in my heart.

I’d heard the doctor, but I still couldn’t believe it. What would Adam say when he found out the baby was gone?

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