Page 63 of Black Mark's Heart

"I'm done, Alex. I'm going somewhere the Fehu can't hurt me or the people I care about anymore," I sobbed.

"I'm coming over," Alex promptly hung up.

Twenty minutes later, we were sitting on my lounge with coffee, Alex digesting my decision to move.

"What happened to the cello?" Alex asked, eyeing it in the corner.

"Jacob really enjoys its deconstruction," I grumbled. "Third time in the last few months he's got to it while I wasn't watching."

We sat there for a few more moments in silence, Jacob's baby talk filling the background.

"I don't want you to move," Alex finally confessed. "I'd miss you, I'd miss Jacob, and with number two on the way, you need your family, Mora."

"I wasn't asking your permission, Alex," I reminded him.

Alex swallowed. "Where will you go?"

"I don't know."

"When?"

Again, I shook my head. "I don't know." Tomorrow.

"What about Darius?" Alex looked at me through his brows. "You've just let him into Jacob's life, and now you want to leave the country and take Jacob away from him again."

"We have no formal parenting agreement," I muttered. I could still feel Brooks’s lips on mine. "He can't stop me from going."

"That's the shittiest thing I've ever heard you say," Alex grumbled.

"Fuck you."

Alex's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. "What's going on with you?"

"Just go," I whispered.

"Mora..."

Rage bubbled through me like a volcano erupting. "Get out, Alex!" I stood yelling at him. "Be like everyone else in my life and leave!"

Alex stood, shocked. "Where is this coming from?"

"You'd know if you ever bothered to see me anymore," I accused. As it came out of my mouth, I knew it wasn't right. Alex was always there for me. I just barely saw him alone anymore, not since he and Tabitha became serious.

"Look, I get that you're hormonal, but you need to settle down."

I picked up the vase next to me and threw it at him. Alex ducked as the glass shattered on the wall next to him. Jacob started crying. I stared at the shattered vase, wide-eyed. I'd never thrown anything at anyone in my life. Alex was looking at me, just as shocked. I walked over, carefully avoiding the broken glass, and collected Jacob from the floor.

"Just go, Alex." I walked up to my room and shut the door. I placed Jacob on the bed, pulled out a suitcase, and started packing. If anything indicated I'd reached my tipping point, it was the throwing of the vase. I couldn't stay. I wouldn't let Brooks force himself on me, and I wasn't going to let him ruin Darius out of jealousy.

I had Jacob and me packed with the essentials within an hour. I booked flights and ordered a car to come and pick us up. It was time to find a new home, create a new life, and move on. There were only two people I called as we drove to the airport. Grandma Blake was an essential. We'd connected the moment we met and we spoke weekly, a lesson learned from Nan dying and me not knowing.

The second, well, that would never have occurred to anyone.

"Bex?" I murmured.

"Mora? Is everything alright?" Darius's sister asked.

"No," I answered with certainty. "It's far from alright."

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