Page 35 of Erik's Redemption
“Tell me what’s wrong, Erik.Now. I don’t want to hear bullshit about you being fine. Aboutusbeing fine. We’re not. We’re drifting apart. And I want you to tell mewhy.”
A muscle in his cheek ticked, but he remained silent.
She frowned. “Why can’t you do it?”
“Because…then I lose you.”
She paused. “Isthisyou keeping me? Leaving before I wake up? Barely speaking to me? Barely able tolookat me?”
“This is me having no damn clue what I’m doing but scared to lose the only good thing in my life!”
She stepped toward him. “Then let me help you. Let me promise you that, whatever it is, it’ll be okay.We’llbe okay.”
“But what if it isn’t? What if the thing I’m keeping from you is the one thing that could shatter us completely? What if it’s so bad that you’ll wish you’d never met me? Would you still want to know?”
Her breath caught, fear tangling inside her chest. For a moment, she let that fear stall her.
Then she blinked and straightened. Whatever it was, they could work through it. They had to. “Yes. I would want to know. Because that at least gives us a chance.”
Another beat of silence, and God, she wanted to scream.
At what point did she stop pushing?
“Erik…I don’t know if I can keep fighting for us if I’m the only one wielding a sword.” Her voice cracked.
Finally, a flicker of emotion on his face—pain. “Hannah…” That was all he said…her name. In a voice that held so much regret, her heart nearly broke.
That’s when she knew for certain—he wasn’t going to tell her. He just expected her to live in this new normal of censored words and fractured love.
“I can’t do this anymore, Erik,” she whispered, the words as broken as she felt. “I can’t love you so hard, only to get so little back. You need to choose—be honest with me, tell me what’s going on…or walk away.”
She watched him,begged himwith her eyes to say something, anything, that would give her a chance to fix them. Words that would give her some clue into what was going on.
But he didn’t. He remained so perfectly still, so quiet, that the silence turned into this rock that sat between them, keeping them apart.
He’d chosen…but he hadn’t chosenher.
“Leave.” Emotion clogged her voice, tears she couldn’t stop rolling down her cheeks.
“Hannah—”
“I gave youeverythingI had, and you can’t even give me one truth that could save us. Get out.Now.”
Even in that moment, even when she thought she’d completely given up, a part of her still hoped,prayed, that he’d try to save them. That he’d saysomethingthat would bring them back together.
When he didn’t, when he ran fingers through his hair, his face pained, then walked away, she felt like the floor was ripped from beneath her feet. Like the fire that had blazed between them, once so bright, was just extinguished with a single puff.
The click of her front door opening and closing felt like a bullet to the chest. Her knees gave out and she fell to the floor. Her chest heaved, the air barely making it to her lungs, and her heart felt like it was bleeding.Shefelt like she was bleeding. Like Erik had taken a sword, sliced her heart in two, and left her to bleed out.
Erik’s fistpounded the bag. With every hit, he found a new level of rage. A new fury to fuel him.
He wasn’t in his basement. He’d had to get out of his house, put some distance between them. She was all he could think about. So he’d just started driving until he’d reached his parents’ house. He’d known his father wouldn’t be home. On Wednesday, he left early to go fishing. His mother was likely home but asleep. The house was so big, she probably wouldn’t hear him though.
The old heavy bag was still in the basement. The bag he knew his brother used when he came home. The bag his father used to use.
Her sad eyes flashed in his mind, and he hit harder.
I gave you everything I had, and you can’t even give me one single truth that could possibly save us.
