She makes her best efforts to comfort me.
“He’s not worth it, Gabby. Gabby, he’s not worth it,” Averie says, repeating the phrases with a desperate hope that it will be enough to calm me. “Trust me. Just let him go.”
I want to hurt him. I don’t want to let him go. I try to make a break for it, but Averie clamps down harder. When did she get so strong? I scream and try to fight for it again, but she wrestles me back. Derek drops his gaze.My Forever no more.
“I have to go,” Derek says. And just like that, he tells me he fucked his sister and slips out the door. Averie releases me when the door shuts.
“Don’t run after him,” she says. “Don’t you dare move, Gabby. Just let his ass go.”
I cry out and throw my arms around her. Because I’m still in shock. Still confused out of my mind. And I just want my big sister. She hugs me back and I cry while she holds me because this isn’t how my afternoon was supposed to go.
I got into Harvard. I should be happy.
Sobs wrack my chest and I can’t stop them, no matter how hard I try. I don’t understand how this could be happening tome. Averie holds me until the sobs stop and then she pulls away to look at me, her own eyes wet with tears.
“I hate seeing you cry.”
“I know,” I answer softly. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I just… I thought you got news about business school.”
“I did.”
“And?”
Through my tears, I muster up the words to tell her. “I got in.”
Chapter Two
Ghost
Isit on Magnum’s couch staring at the ceiling fan – drunk. I haven’t seen the kids in way too long and it’s killing me. I stopped keeping track when I realized that I might be making my condition worse by counting the days.
Wyatt and Hunter told me that myex-wifeTylee might have taken the kids up to Deb’s, which made sense since she’s their grandma, but once they got up there it turns out she didn’t take the kids there at all, and we don’t have a fucking clue where she went with the three of them. Feels like somebody tied my stomach and intestines in several knots and the only thing that can work them loose is Jack Daniels.
I’ve gone through more whiskey than I ought to in the past week, but what’s the point in staying awake or staying alive without the kids? Without a family? I know things are over between me and Tylee. I know it in my bones the way I knew she was pregnant before the test told us. We had a whole life together. We grew up together. But all of that is in the dust, and right now I can’t see a way out.
Not without the kids. Not without a proper divorce.
How long have I even been here?
When was the last time I ate something?
Couldn’t tell you the answers to either of those questions, to be honest.
The light in the room changes. It’s dark when I hear voices again.
“He’s been on the couch all day, Magnum. Again. We have to do something about it.”
“He’s working through things,” Magnum murmurs, as if his booming voice could somehow become inaudible with such minimal effort.
“He’s not working through things. He’s getting drunk and he smells bad.”
I know I smell bad, but does Damara have to be so harsh about it?
“He might be a little depressed,” Magnum concedes. A little? I have half a mind to blow my head off. But I can’t do that knowing I would never see my kids again.
Damara approaches my spot on the couch.