Page 98 of The Wallflower

"Stop, please. Don't do this, Drew. You’re more than this. Don’t become your father."

He sneers, and there's not a hint of the man who drove me up sheer cliffs of pleasure and threw me off, only to catch me at the bottom. This isn't him. His face moves closer to mine, and even though I want to push away, I can’t move. His lips are so close to mine, I could touch them. I look into those emerald depths and see nothing of the man I’ve come to care for. The Drew I caught glimpses of is nowhere to be seen. It’s almost as if he never existed at all.

"See, that’s going to be a problem because, as it turns out, I am my father’s son. It’s not my fault you refused to see the real me this whole time. That you romanticized something that never existed. I need you to understand something, and I know you’re smart, so lock it away in the confines of your mind. You're nothing to me, Maybel. Nothing but white trash with a nice little cunt that I enjoyed fucking for a short time. The icing on the cake was taking your virginity. Perhaps that’s what got you twisted into thinking I gave a shit. I don’t really know, and I don’t really care. Now my duties to my family and name are the most important thing to me, and while your pussy strangling my cock was nice, I need to fulfill my obligations by getting married to someone suitable. Someone worth being seen with. Though, maybe, if you're a good girl and don't make a fuss, I'll give you my dick one more time after the wedding.”

It would’ve hurt far less had he ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it. I don’t think all I can do is react. I pull my hand back and slap him hard across the cheek. The smack rings through the room, the burn of it enveloping my palm. Silence settles over us until all I hear is his heavy panting above me.

"Is that all you got, wallflower? If so, then you're fucked." He shoves me backward, and I lose my balance, my body tilting sideways. Horror flashes in his eyes, and I watch in slow motion as he reaches for me, his fingers missing me by a breath. It's like a car accident happening right before my eyes. One moment I’m standing, and the next, my head collides with something hard and unforgiving. Red-hot pain stabs through my skull. The world spins around me, my stomach churning and threatening to empty onto the floor as I land on my hands and knees. I fight through my blurry vision to look up and find Drew’s father staring down at me, a cruel smile on his lips.

"Well done, Son. Now send her away so we can continue this discussion."

I don’t know how I ever trusted him, how I ever thought he gave a shit about me. If this is an act, then he deserves an Oscar. When Drew stalks forward, my only thought is to escape. I no longer know this man nor do I trust him not to hurt me. My head feels heavy like it’s a fish bowl, but I don’t let that stop me. I skitter backward like a crab on my hands and feet to keep him from touching me again. When I hit the wooden door behind me, I know I'm trapped. Trapped between him, the door, and every shard of syllable he's slicing me open with. He crouches down in front of me, and the memory of when he did that same thing in the woods pops into my head, the scent of earth and damp forest all around us.

"It’s time for you to leave, Maybel. You can take the trash out yourself, or I can take you out. Either way, this ends tonight. You’re nothing to me, and you never were. Nothing more than a warm hole to sink into every once in a while. Now get up and get the fuck out and let us men do our talking.”

I don’t know why, but my heart forces me to cling to some type of false hope. I can’t possibly believe any of this is real, not when I know what I felt. “This isn’t you, Drew.” I shake my head, fighting back tears. Every single fiber in my body tells me to believe his words, but my heart, my heart tells me to look deeper. To notice the little details.

He shakes his head as if he can’t believe I’m questioning him and reaches into his pocket. Tugging his wallet out, he thumbs through it and pulls out a wad of cash. The dollar bills rain down on me. "I forgot to pay you for the last time we were together. That should be enough, right? If you need more, stop by The Mill. I'm sure one of the guys will be happy to let you suck them off for a little more. You know...for your mommy."

My heart collapses into my stomach. His words are salt in a never-healing wound. "She has nothing to do with this or any of you assholes! You don’t even deserve to speak about her.”

His lips twist up into a heart-breaking smile. "Oh, there she is. I was afraid I might have put out your fire. Nice to know you’re still in there. Now do you want to keep fighting, kitten, or do you want to go home with whatever remaining fucking pride you have left?"

I slowly push off the floor, using the stationary door for support to gain my footing. A wave of dizziness hits me, and I take a slow breath into my lungs, steadying myself. When I meet Drew’s gaze, I swear I see concern, but when I blink, it’s gone. All that’s left is his stupid smug smile.

"You're a disgusting, self-righteous prick, and I can’t believe I ever thought there was a single ounce of good inside you." I want to hurt him. To stomp on his heart the way he’s stomped on mine, but I don’t know that I can. Not when I’m not even sure there’s a heart inside him.

He doesn’t appear affected by my lashing of words. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Isn't that what they say?"

I look back and forth between him and his father. "I guess not. Not surprising, really. You’re just like him. I thought I had witnessed the real monster that night in the woods, but it turns out he never really showed me his face. Not until today.”

He takes a step toward me, and I shield my face with my hands, afraid he might hit me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he grabs me by the wrists, my skin burning where he touches me, and using the weight of my own body, he shoves me backward. He pushes me hard enough to dislodge the swinging door behind me. The doors fly open with the weight of my body while I spill out onto the floor ass first.

Pain registers in my mind as my tailbone throbs from the fall, but instead of sitting there like a damn statue, I scramble off the floor and onto my trembling legs.

“I hate you! I hate you, and I hope that when you realize how much you’ve messed up, you experience the same pain I am right now. I hope you see that I was the only one to give a shit about you.”

"I don’t need you to give a shit about me, Maybel. I’ll find another tight cunt to keep my cock warm. That’s all you ever were to me anyway, a nice warm hole to fuck.”

Those are the final nails in my coffin. There is no point in me continuing this conversation or trying to understand. I’m only prolonging the inevitable. I turn to leave, my eyes full of tears, making my vision blurry. My first reaction is to run, but I don’t. I won't let him run me out of here. I thought...I don't know. I don’t know what I thought. Whatever we shared or whatever semblance of what we shared has been shattered and blown into a million pieces. It doesn’t matter. I lived without him before, and I'll do it again. Fuck him and this whole fucking world.

When I make it to the door on the other side, I pause. Anger threatens to swallow me whole. He doesn't get to throw me out like trash when he's the one with the secret and the shitty family. This is not on me. It's on him. I turn and stare down the long hallway, watching as a woman comes through the back of the kitchen. She's in a server's uniform like me, and I think maybe she’s going to tell them someone called the police or to break up the argument, but she walks straight into Drew's father’s arms.

My gaze travels back to Drew. He's clenching his fists as his father leans in and kisses the woman passionately. It's at that moment when he sinks his fingers into her hair, and she lets out a terrible giggle that I recognize who she is.Jackie.The ground beneath my feet shifts. I can’t be seeing this correctly. The world spins, and I feel bile rising up my throat.No. She wouldn't dothis to me. Jack is my friend, my best friend, she'd never. The betrayal cuts through me like a dull knife cutting through meat. How could she?

What the hell is going on?You know what? It doesn’t matter. None of this matters. Not Drew, not this fucking family, or the money. Tears fall hot and heavy, making tracks down my cheeks, but I don’t feel them. I continue forward, but the door on the other side swings open the second I reach it, and I almost walk into...someone.

"I'm so..." I sniffle and duck my head, trying to hide my red face and tear-filled eyes. "Sorry."

Gently, as if I’m made of glass, the person grabs me by the shoulders. I lift my head and stare into a pair of eyes that have never shown an ounce of concern or care for me.Sebastian.This day keeps getting more and more fucked up.

"Come, Bel. Let me take care of this.” Why is he looking at me like that, and what is he talking about? What is there to take care of?

I try to shrug out of his hold, but his grasp is ironclad. “There is nothing to take care of. I’m done with him, and I don’t give a fuck if I ever see him again.”

“I understand that, but they don’t get to treat you like this. To toss you out like trash. You’re not trash. You’re fucking royalty.”

I’m so confused by his words that I have no response. Instead, I find myself staring at him. His cheeks are pink, his curls tousled and shoved away from his face. His bow tie is undone as he surveys my face, and I swear I can feel his eyes penetrating the spot on my cheek, the bruise already forming from where that stupid goon hit me. The concern melts into red-hot rage as he takes in my entire face, clearly seeing something that angers him.

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