The thought came out of nowhere. Just hit me smack bang in the face. I could almost see her standing before me in that blue summer-dress, instead of the lilac number she was wearing now. For some reason, it felt like a memory. But it couldn’t be. She also didn’t have blonde hair, because the roots of her dyed-pink hair were light brownish. Yet, it felt so real, making me wonder whether I’d met her before.
“Do I know you?” I asked.
She took a step back and shook her head, looking ready to flee. Yeah, she knew me, all right, her skittish reaction clashing with her reply. I wondered whether that was why her crazy mate had acted so strange when she’d heard my name. The receptionist had mentioned I’d dated her friend at high school. Maybe this was the friend. Which meant we must’ve gone out in Year Eleven. I could only remember bits and pieces of that time, the car accident wiping out months’ worth of memory. But Clara looked older than me, in her early thirties at a guess. Too old to be a student...
Then it clicked.
“Oh, fuck,” I said, now remembering where I’d seen her. “I know you, you’re Mrs. Hatton. My English teacher.”
24
Clara
He remembered who I was!
Dante continued before I could answer him, “After you turned up at my house, Jasper told me ’bout you. Said we had an affair. I wuz in a car crash, which wuz why he had to tell me.” He tapped his head. “I had some memory loss cos of it.”
All my hopes instantly shattered, my initial thoughts now smashed to pieces, lying broken on the floor. I opened my mouth then closed it, too upset to get a word out, going from elated to devastated within seconds.
He started walking towards me, his beautiful face dead serious. He’d changed even more in the years since I’d visited his house. He was a powerful-looking man, dressed in leather pants and an Avenged Sevenfold shirt, that clung just enough to suggest there was a six-pack hiding beneath. Everything about him screamed sex. From the Maori tattoo curving around his left eye to the fire burning in his dark gaze. And he was even more muscular, his tattooed arms looking incredible.
He stopped in front of me, curiosity in his expression. “I had a recurring dream ’bout fucking a teacher on a desk, but could never picture her face, only her blonde hair.” He touched my hair, running it through his fingers. “Wuz that you?”
I nodded.
He let go of my hair and gave me a smile. “Thought it wuz after Jasper told me what happened between us. He said I really liked you.”
You loved me.
He continued, “But you had to move.”
To jail.
“So, how’ja end up here?”
Because I was banned from teaching.
And it was the only place that was willing to give me a second chance.
His smile dropped. “What’s wrong? You look like you’re gonna cry.”
I bit my bottom lip, so close to proving him right.
His expression softened. “Hey, I didn’t meana upset you. You okay?” He lifted a hand, placing it on my arm.
I took a step back, not wanting him to touch me. Not wanting him anywhere near me. He didn’t know who I was. Not truly. I was a fake story that Jasper had spun for him. A small snippet of reality in a dream. Not the living breathing human being who had gone to jail for loving him.
But I couldn’t tell him any of that. Because I was from his forgotten past, a past his family and friends didn’t want him to remember, something I couldn’t blame them for. They were doing it to protect him.
To protect him from me.
But who would protect me from him?
I turned and ran, ran as fast as I could away from Dante, grief, sorrow, even anger pushing me forward. I headed into the foyer, aiming for the exit, desperate to escape.
“CC!” Georgie yelled out, startling me enough to stop me in my tracks.
She rushed around the desk to me, wrapping me up in her arms, murmuring, “It’s going to be all right.”
A lie, because it would never be all right.
My worst nightmare had walked back into my life. Although I still loved Dante—loved him with all my heart—I knew nothing good could come from seeing him again, everything we had together gone.
Gone from his mind.
Because, although he’d pieced two and two together, I was still a stranger to him, just a teacher that he’d had a fling with.
I burst into tears, my heart breaking all over again. Georgie quickly directed me towards the office behind the reception. She closed the door and sat me down on the couch, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
She gave me a sad, knowing smile. “You were right, he is beautiful.”
I’d told her everything about Dante. About how I’d met him. How I’d fallen in love with him. And how I’d lost him.
I looked up at her, my eyes pleading with her to fix this for me. She was my flatmate and best friend, the only one who’d gotten me through my last year in prison. Before she’d come in, it had been hell. I’d been put into a protected unit after I was attacked with a knife, the scar on my back a constant reminder. She’d also been put in the protected unit after she’d killed a drug dealer. But she’d been freed a month before I’d gotten out, declared innocent, her lawyer finally proving she’d acted in self-defence.
She’d been one of only two prisoners who hadn’t treated me like dirt, the other woman someone I avoided after finding out she’d abused her son. Georgie had avoided that woman too, but had taken an instant liking to me, saying she’d read all about my case. I guessed she was a little star struck at first, treating me like some sort of celebrity, which I found odd until she’d told me about her past. She’d had a massive crush on a teacher at the age of fourteen, saying she would’ve done anything to be with him, but the man hadn’t been interested. Then she’d made me describe Dante in detail, finding out he wasn’t the innocent schoolboy all the other women had assumed he was.
“You’ll get through this, like you got through everything else,” Georgie said, giving my arm a gentle squeeze.
An overwhelming feeling of exhaustion fell over me. “I don’t think I can.”
“Of course you can, and you have Simon now,” she said, mentioning my boyfriend—another counsellor.
I shook my head, a feeling of déjà vu hitting me. Simon was blond like my ex-husband, and as handsome and sweet as the man I’d cheated on all those years ago.
“I can’t do this again,” I said. “It won’t be fair on Simon. I have to break things off with him.”
Georgie instantly let go of me. “No! He’s lovely. You can’t break up with him just because you saw an ex.”
“Not just any ex, and you know it. He’s the love of my life. And Markus was lovely too. I should’ve broken up with him instead of lying and cheating on him. I won’t do that again, and especially not to a sweetheart like Simon.”
She pulled a face. “After everything that Dante put you through, you can’t be serious about letting him back into your life? Not to forget, he doesn’t even remember you, and even if he did, it won’t lead to anything good. I read his file while you were showing him around. He’s addicted to alcohol, drugs, and sex. He’s also been admitted into a psych ward. More than once.”
Her words sent despair through me, despair that things had only gotten harder, not easier for Dante.
I shook my head. “I have no intention of getting back with him,” I replied, Georgie misreading my intent.
Her perfectly plucked eyebrows drew upwards. “Then, why break up with Simon?”
“Because it would be unfair to stay with him. One look at Dante and I wanted to grab his beautiful face and kiss him. I still love him, even after nine years apart. And I’ll never love Simon because of it. He needs to find someone who will love him, like I love Dante.”
She scowled at me. “And what about you? You deserve love too, and not with that sex god out there. You should be with someone who’ll treat you like you’re the only one in the world for the
m.”
But Dante had treated me like that. Yet the man in the room with the come-hither look wasn’t the same person. He didn’t remember me; our relationship nothing but word of mouth.
“I’ll just have to keep looking,” I finally said.
“And not at Dante.”
“I already said that.” I wiped the last of my tears away and stood up, knowing I couldn’t let Dante know just how much he affected me, because he wouldn’t understand. “I can do this. I can treat him like any other patient.”
Georgie looked up at me, damn well knowing that was a lie.
Because Dante wasn’t like any other patient.
He was the man I loved.
And would always love.
But I had to resist him.
Because he wasn’t mine to love anymore.
No matter how much I wanted him to be my forever.
*
Clara’s and Dante’s story
will be continued in
LOVE STONED
*
I hope you enjoyed reading Jagged Pill
If you’re interested in reading more about Dante, he features in the Behind the Lives series (from book 2 onwards). He also has a cameo in book 1, though please note that Behind the Hood has a different feeling to the rest of its series and isn’t romance. The Rata brothers’ story starts from book 2, Behind the Tears.
Book 2, 3, and 4 chronicles the year that leads up to the final two chapters in Jagged Pill. If you’re interested, the Behind the Lives series will give you an insight into why Dante ended up at the rehab centre.
Lastly, I would love it if you could review this book. Reviews are vital to a writer’s career. Not only do we need them to promote our work, they encourage us to keep writing. So, thanks in advance if you’ve given me a review, I really appreciate it.
Kind Regards,
Marita A. Hansen.
About the Author
Marita A. Hansen is from New Zealand. She loves writing, creating art, watching and participating in football, and running. She ran her first marathon in 2012 and is now planning on completing many more. For more information on Marita check out these links:
Author Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marita-A-Hansen/113130742120676
Blog Site:
http://maritaahansen.blogspot.co.nz/
Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/Marita-A.-Hansen/e/B005H5W79K/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Goodreads’ Author Page:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5129673.Marita_A_Hansen
Artslant Page:
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/74433-marita-hansen
Twitter Name: @MaritaAHansen
MORE BOOKS BY MARITA A. HANSEN
Graffiti Heaven (Graffiti Heaven #1)
Behind the Hood (Behind the Lives #1)
Behind the Tears (Behind the Lives #2)
Behind the Lens (Behind the Lives #3)
Behind the Secrets (Behind the Lives #4)
Don’t Peek (The Diaries of a Teenage Girl)
Overwhelmed (Blurred Lines #1)
My Masters’ Nightmare Season 1, Episodes 1 – 5
My Masters’ Nightmare Season 1, Episodes 6 – 10
My Masters’ Nightmare Season 1, Episodes 11 – 15
Ricardo (The Santini Brothers #1)
Brando (The Santini Brothers #2)
Vincenzo (A Santini Brothers’ Short Story) from the anthology Men of Mayhem
I Love You, Salvatore (The Five Families #1) – This is also a Santini Brothers’ Novella
Sasha & Andriena (Lovers & Sinners #1)
Broken English (Broken Lives #1)
Shattered Poetry (Broken Lives #2)
Jagged Pill (Broken Lives Book 3) Page 29