“Bella, sit. I have your breakfast ready.” She says pointing to a barstool.
“Where is Roman?” I ask, hopping onto one of the barstools.
“He already left for work,” She tells me, setting down a plate of food for me.
I eat everything on my plate in silence. As if they can judge my mood, they leave me alone to be lost in my own thoughts. If I have my phone, I can call Roman and asks why he didn’t wake me up to let me know he was leaving. Instead, I am sitting here feeling lost in a home that doesn’t feel like home.
I rinse off my plate and excuse myself. Big bald guy tells me he’s taking me to school. I give him a half smile before I turn around and leave the kitchen.
I leave my hair wet. I’m in another Gucci sweat suit, this one royal blue. The only make-up I have on is just mascara and lip-gloss. I look tired. But, I don’t care.
The big bald guy looks at me and does a double take. “You dressed for school?” He asks sounding confused.
“Yes, is there something wrong?” I snap.
“No, of course not,” he turns away from me.
I follow him out the door to the escalade. He opens the door for me. I get in and move all the way to the back.
“Where to?” He asks when he’s in the driver seat.
“I need to go to my place to pick up my backpack.” I say, rudely. “Do you have my phone by any chance?”
“No, miss, I do not.” He reverses and pulls the car onto the street.
Lola and Kevin are at the house when I get there. Their faces are grim. I walk to my room without saying anything to them. Kevin follows me, closing the door when we are both inside. He watches me as I stuff my books into my backpack.
I avoid his penetrating stare and try to move around him to the door. He stops me with his arm and faintly pushes me back.
“We have been calling you,” he says
“I don’t have my phone,” I say, tucking my chin in and try to move past him again.
“Where’s your phone, Angel?” His voice is low and rough.
“Roman took it,” I say, glancing to my door.
“What the fuck and you just let him take it?” Kevin’s voice raises an octave.
“What do you want me to do? Huh?” I hiss. “He caught me practically naked at your house!”
“He doesn’t own you,” Kevin growls.
“I have to go,” I shove him out of the way.
He catches me again with his arms, this time Kevin wraps his whole body around me.
“Let. Me. Go.” I ground out my words.
“Angel, you don’t have to do this. You told me you came here to make something out of your life and now you’re just…shit…going to fucking let him take control of your life?”
“I don’t know what to do anymore,” I cry into his chest. “I love him, Kevin.”
“Look at me Angel,” Kevin whispers.
I bend my head back and stare into his hurt filled hazel eyes.
“I love you Angel…”
“Don’t…” I choke out.
“Let me give you the life you want. Do you really want to succumb to the life he’s going to make you live? Angel, you are too strong to be controlled. He’s going to keep breaking you down, until there’s no more left of you.”
“I hurt him and I’m going to make it up to him.” I glance away from Kevin’s gaze.
Kevin drops his head in defeat his forehead resting heavily on top of my head.
“Angel, I’ll let you go. But, I want you to know I will always be around when you need me.” He sighs deeply.
Kevin unwraps his arms and steps back. His head is still hanging forward.
I fight with the soul deep in me, the one that is telling me to stay because I love him too. I leave my room without another word.
Lola stands by the front door waiting for me.
“Angel, you doing okay?” She asks with sincerity.
“Yes, I can’t talk now.” I say moving past her to the door and turn the knob. “Roman’s driver is waiting for me.”
“Okay,” is all she says as I walk out, closing the door.
The car door is open and waiting for me, I stop before climbing in. “What’s your name?”
“Vinny,” the big, bald guy answers.
I half smile and get into the SUV.
Kevin is waiting at our lab table; I make my way to my chair not meeting his eyes.
“We are dissecting a cat today, you ready?” He asks.
There’s no trace of what we both had to endure over the weekend. It’s back to school business for us.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Natalie walks into the classroom and stops at our desk. Her eyes fall on me and she smirks.
“You look like shit,” she says. “Been busy with my brother?”
“Don’t,” Kevin warns. “Go to your seat, Nat.”
“Whatever,” she walks off.
The room fills up with students and our Professor. She passes out the handouts and saunters back to her desk. The Professor goes over our dissecting rules and turns us loose. Kevin brings over our cat.
He hands me a blade and everything comes crashing down. I see his frightened gaze before my world becomes a darkened pool of soullessness.
“Dad,” I say walking into his office.
My dad looks up from his desk confusion fills his face. I stand watching him.
“Daddy, are you okay?” I ask walking over to him. I stand beside him feeling his forehead.
He blinks and rubs his head. “This headache is killing me.” He picks up his pen and drops it back on the desk.
I hop up to sit on his desk and cross my legs. I pretend to study my nails, but I’m watching him instead. My dad is a proud man. He’s not one to ask for help even when it’s a medical crisis. He will send me away if I start to fuss over him.
“Sweet Angel, baby girl, don’t you have somewhere to be.” My dad says.
He’s dismissing me.
I reluctantly leave and I never saw my dad the same again.
I came home the next morning to find my dad being wheeled out on a stretcher. I rush to him, grabbing his hand and staring into his eyes. His lively soul is no longer there.
“Dad?” I whisper calmly but I am screaming inside.
He blankly stares back.
“Dad! Remember me! I’m your sweet baby girl, Angel. Please, Dad. Remember me!” My fingers slips away from his and I collapse onto the ground, watching the ambulance rush out of sight.
My dad had told me when I was five, even though I didn’t understand the meaning of his words that I had been sent from heaven. I saved his life from the disruptive way he was living. He was broken hearted and didn’t know where he was going in life. I gave him purpose and the reason to live. “You are my guardian Angel,” he reminded me almost every day since I was born.
He’d told me that when he was living in Minneapolis that he had fallen in love with a girl. He chased her around for five years before she found herself pregnant with another man’s baby. My dad left right after to move out to California with a broken heart. He met my mom as soon as he stepped foot on California’s soil. They had a whirlwind romance and she got pregnant right away. Sadly, she lost her first baby.
A year later, he received a call from the girl he’d left in Minneapolis. The baby’s father had left her. My dad broke things off with my mom and moved back to be with his first love. He’d returned to Minneapolis on the assumption that she was still the same girl he had fallen in love with. They fought every day, mainly because the boy’s mom was neglectful to her own son.
My mom came to Minneapolis six months later looking for my dad. She was seven months pregnant with me. She told my dad that she didn’t love him anymore, but she wanted her daughter to know who her dad was.
Sadly, my dad didn’t follow my mom back home. He stayed with his first love instead. He had fallen in love with the baby boy even though the boy wasn’t his. He wanted to give the boy a parent
who would love him.
My dad did show up to watch me come into this world. He took one look at me, and I captured his heart. There was no going back for him. He stayed in California. He did travel back and forth to see how the little boy was doing.
When the boy turned eighteen, my dad went back to Minneapolis for the last time. He brought the boy back, and together they proceeded to build what is now the biggest Real Estate firm in Southern California.
The boy wanted more, so he branched out into finance. He now owns a successful Investment firm.
I had always wanted to meet him, but for some reason my dad kept us apart. I didn’t even know his name. He kept him away from all of us, my mom, and my brother and sister. My dad’s firm never listed him on anything. When I passed by an Investment firm, I always try to guess if that was his company.
Yes, my mom and dad went on to have two more kids. They stayed together, but I never felt any love between them.
Then one drunken night, while attending a Christmas party for my dad’s Real Estate Firm, someone pulled me into a supply closet. The man held me against the door and devoured me.
“Who are you?” I whispered in the dark.
“Just someone who’s been wanting you, for a long fucking time,” he growled.
He hiked up my dress and got in between my legs.
“Tell me your name,” I ordered in a whisper.
“Hawken,” he rumbled out his name.
There was no more talking after that.
He’d showed me what it was like to be taken by someone who worships you. He took my body to places it had never been before. There was so much passion coming from him that I’d felt like I had almost died during my orgasm.
“Will I see you again?” I asked feeling insecure for the first time in my life.
“Can’t baby doll, I work with your dad,” he kissed me hard and deep before he left me alone in the closet.
I have been dreaming about him ever since.
Hawken.
The concierge had called Kevin’s apartment to ask to speak to Mr. Hawken.
My eyes flew open and I clawed at the face of the person whose lap I was sitting on.
“Whoa!” He tries to hold my hands down.
My head is resting on his big muscular thighs, and he’s holding an ice pack on my head.
“I want to get up,” I demand.
He helps me up and my head falls back down.
“God, why does my head feel so heavy,” I whimper, pressing my face into his chest.
“You hit your head pretty hard on the desk when you were going down,” he chuckles. “We’re taking you to the hospital to have you checked out.”
I open one eye to gaze at the driver. Natalie looks back at me through the rearview mirror. She gives me a concerning smile.
When we arrive at the hospital, Kevin carries me out of the car to the emergency room, he settles me in a chair before he goes to talk to the reception desk.
I hold my heavy head with my hand, propping my elbow on the armrest of the chair. Natalie sits next to me with observant eyes.
I nod off; Natalie jerks me back to reality. I grumble some curse words at her. We play this game until Kevin comes back to carry me to one of the rooms inside.
Once I’m on a bed, Kevin paces the tiny room, walls made of just curtains. He squints towards the cluster of running nurses and doctors. His hands grips and un-grips the back of his neck.
He sits on the chair beside my bed for nearly five seconds before he’s off to his pacing again.
“Can you not move around so much,” I clench my forehead with my fingers. “You’re making my headache worse.” I try to joke and tease, but it comes out sounding as if I’m crying.
Kevin stops pacing and rushes over to me. He positions my head against his burly chest.
“You doing okay?” He smooth my frayed hair down.
I bind my arms around his waist and nestle closer to him.
A doctor comes over to us, breaking us a part. Kevin sits back down on the chair. The doctor asks me a series of questions. Am I dizzy, do I see stars, do I feel like vomiting, do I feel weak and do I feel as if my head has pressure.
“Okay, I’m going to go ahead and order a CT scan for you.” He says. “Do you have any questions?”
We both say no. The doctor leaves and Kevin loses it. He rubs his hand down his face and pounds his fist onto his thigh repeatedly.
“Stop!” I order.
I thrust my arm out and wiggle my fingers for him to come to me. Kevin comes over and we resume our position before the doctor had interrupted us.
“Why do you love me?” I ask, looking up at him.
“Angel, do you believe in love at first sight?” Kevin asks me instead.
“No, I don’t,” I glimpse away.
“When I first saw you, you shined as bright as the sun. Your eyes twinkle when you smile. You are always bouncing and full of life. And when you care about someone, you don’t hesitate before you drop everything to go to them.” Kevin sighs. “When we became close, everything seemed to fit. We molded into each other.”
“Do you hate me for not being able to love you back the way you want me too?” I ask hesitantly.
“No, babe. I want you to be happy. You can love anyone the way you choose to love them.”
I want to tell him I know who he is. There are so many damn questions I have for Kevin. But, I know that once the questions start rolling out of my mouth, he will find a way to dodge them. I exhale a long breath.
Kevin gives me a quick smooch on the head when the nurse comes in.
“Okay, we are all ready for your CT scan.” The nurse unhooks the brakes to the bed and rolls me away. I shift in the bed so I can look back at Kevin, rocking back on his heels, hands in his front pockets, and looking grim.
The nurse brings me back to an empty room. Where is he?
Panic accelerates within my fatigued body. I close my eyes and clinch the sheet covering me.
Don’t look at your hand.
Not your hand.
Scars.
I cry out before I can stop myself. People stop mid-whatever they were doing and glance over.
I shake my head to let them know not to come to me and I close my tired eyes.
“Baby, I’m here.” Roman murmurs next to me.
I slowly open my eyes and grin, a stupid lazy grin.
“How did you know I was here?” I rasp.
“Kevin called me.” Roman says, analyzing my emotions.
“He did,” I say, my face stoic.
Roman visually relaxes and nuzzles his lips onto the top of my head.
“Where is he?” I dare to ask.
“He’s gone home,” Roman says into my hair.
My face contours in sadness and my body slouches giving in to the knowledge that Kevin is gone.
Roman rubs up and down my arm soothing me.
“You love him, don’t you?” He asks quietly.
I shake my head and bite down on my lips to keep from crying.
“Angel, I want to be the man who has your heart. I want you to give me your body and soul. I want you to be mine and only mine. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I peek through my lashes.
Roman cascades my body to the bed and he sits in the chair next to me. The doctor shows up to let us know my CT scan came back normal and that I am to be release.
“I will wheel her out,” Roman orders the nurse.
“It’s protocol sir that we do it,” The nurse impatiently tells him.
“And if you trip and she gets injured, I will make sure you will not work another day in your life.” Roman barks.
“Honey, please let the nurse wheel me out. I’m tired and I would like to go home now.” I close my eyes from my exhaustion.
“Wheel her out,” Roman grumbles.
The nurse huffs, but wheels me out. Roman carries me to the escalade when we are outside of the hospital. He straps the seatbelt and takes a seat n
ext to me.
“Home, boss?” Vinny asks from the driver seat.
Roman nods.
He doesn’t just sit in his seat. He’s reaching over rubbing my arm, stroking my cheek with his knuckles, and caressing my hair. Every time he touches me, my body instinctively leans into his touch.
Roman owns my body and soul, but my heart, my heart belongs to someone else, stolen from a supply closet so many years ago.
“I’m taking the week off,” he informs me. “I’ll take care of you, okay baby?”
“Yes, my honey bun. I want you to.” I say glancing over and meeting his smiling eyes.
Vinny pulls the SUV into the driveway and out comes Maura, Ellie, and the kids. They ambush the car, opening the door on both sides.
“Bella, you’re okay.” Maura presses a palm to her cheek. “Thank God.”
Sophie in her mother’s arm reaches out her hand to me. I take her little fingers and squeeze them.
“She’s tough,” Marcus proudly states.
“Everyone give us some room.” Roman climbs out of the SUV and carries me out with him.
He takes me to the family room couch and sets me down, propping up pillows underneath my head.
“No one is to come near her,” he orders his family.
I cringe.
Roman and his commanding ways.
It’s the week of Thanksgiving.
After my head injury, I took the allowed three days off from school. I did however go in for my lab period in order to dissect the cat with Kevin. And yes, to spend some time with him also. He’s spending the week with his family, making up for lost time with his mom.
He did ask if I wanted to spend the week with him instead, but the apprehension on my face stops him dead. He mumbles under his breath and then says, “Dammit I’m joking.”
From what I hear from Lola, Kevin is still dating Aubrey. I will forever not understand what he sees in her. Yes, she’s stunningly beautiful, but she has a cold, dead heart. Who can love that?
“What are you thinking about, love?” Roman asks.
He’s sitting next to me on his private jet. His family is seated all around us, talking an absurdly amount. I had to break into a reverie to drown them out.
“Why do you have a private jet,” I quip. “Investment firm owners do not make enough money to own private planes, do they?”
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