by Mia Michelle
She looks at me blankly and whispers, “Goodbye, Sebastian,” before she walks out of the door and down the hall. I stand there in shock staring at the ring on my desk. The ring that represented our future life together is no longer on my beautiful girl’s hand. Realization hits me and I run.
I can’t let her leave! I have to stop her!
Panicked, I begin running down the long hallway and see her stepping inside the elevator. I am so frantic that I stumble and fall onto the floor of the living room. I can see her repetitively pushing the button inside the elevator and I scramble to get to my feet. With my final desperate plea, I beg her with everything in me and dart for the closing doors. She stares back into my eyes with a cold lifeless glare. When my hands finally reach the closed steel door, I know that this goodbye really is for good.
Lucas
Seven months, sixteen days and four hours…that’s how long it’s been since I have seen her. As I drive through the familiar traffic of downtown Austin, I am reminded about how nice it is to finally be back behind the wheel of my Aston Martin again.
I try calling her cell phone, but the number has changed. Making my way to her house, I see the SOLD sign in the front yard, which confirms to me that she must be living with Sebastian at his penthouse.
Since my company still handles the financial business of Thorne Enterprises, I decide to let this visit look like a business call. With his latest quarterly reports and documents to be signed underneath my arm, I walk confidently into their apartment building. The doorman recognizes me and waves me on through to the elevators. I press the button to call the elevator downstairs and shuffle my feet nervously as I await its arrival.
You can do this, Lucas. She is worth everything. FIGHT FOR HER!
Skylar
“Baby, please… you are my life. I wanted to tell you from the beginning. Please let me explain… baby please… look at me!” he begs. But I cannot answer him… I can hardly stand to look at him. There is absolutely nothing he can say to me right now or ever that will make this better or make me forgive him for what he has done. My chest constricts and I gasp out in agony. I don’t think I have ever hurt this bad in my entire life. It’s the pain of losing my parents mixed with the pain of knowing the man I love was responsible for their death.
For almost eight years, I have thought about what I would do or what I would say, if I ever got the chance to be face to face with the person that took everything from me that night. I imagined the screaming and the violent blows that I would give them, but for some reason none of that matters now. I have nothing left in me. I’m completely hollow.
Gradually, I slide the infinity diamond from my left hand and study it. I never imagined I would ever want to take this off my hand. His amber eyes look at me with such fear and pain, but I didn’t care. I stride over to his desk and deposit the ring and my heart with it. He now has officially taken everything from me.
His desperate pleas through his tears don’t affect me. Coldly, I stare back at him and whisper, “Goodbye, Sebastian,” and turn to leave his office. I feel like a zombie as I walk back down the long penthouse hall and past my belongings. I don’t even worry about what I’m wearing, or the fact that I am barefoot. I just keep walking to the elevator and hit the close button on the inside panel.
Sebastian is rounding the corner and running towards me when he slips, falling to the floor. His panicked face looks at me with pleading eyes. When I now look back into them, I feel absolutely nothing. Every wonderful feeling that I once held for this man no longer exists, replaced with an agonizing emptiness. I press and hold the door close button, praying for the doors to shut. Sebastian scrambles to his feet, and as he makes a mad dash towards me, he begins screaming.
“SKYLAR! NO, BABY! DON’T GO! PLEASE!” he screams in anguish. Sebastian desperately tries to reach the closing doors in time, but he’s too late. It is all just too late….
THE END… for now.
Endings are funny sometimes, because sometimes, just sometimes, they aren’t really endings, but instead only the beginning.
Can’t wait for book 2? (I hate cliffhangers too) So, to give you a little something more, here is a little sample from Book 2 of the Thorne series, THORNELESS. Hope you enjoy.
Skylar
It’s just too late. It’s really over.
Anger overtakes me and I slam the cold, mirrored walls over and over with my hand. I don’t care that I am bleeding. I don’t even notice the pain in my right hand because I hurt too much everywhere else to care. The tears that threatened earlier now are pouring down my face. I lean against the cold metal, slide down to the floor, and wrap my bloody hands around my legs. When I hit the cold floor, I feel every emotion turn off like a switch and the numbness overtakes me again. The tears stop and I zone out and begin willing myself never to feel anything ever again.
I vaguely notice the doors open in the lobby, but I don’t move. A blurry figure rushes to me, kneeling down closer.
“OH MY GOD! SKYLAR! Look at me, angel!” A familiar voice calls my name. He pulls me into his arms and the elevator door shuts behind him. He sits on the floor and holds me and I breathe in the wonderful smell of woodsy leather. I blink back out of my daze and into the sparkling terrified emerald eyes of Lucas Drake.
Lucas
The elevator is almost to the lobby and I nervously shift the folder underneath my arm. I had thought that I had myself together but being this close to seeing her is making me a nervous wreck.
What if my plan fails and I am not able to speak to her privately? What if she hates me for never calling her in all this time? BREATHE… Lucas.
I hear the familiar chime of the elevator indicating its arrival and it pulls me out of my thoughts and back to reality.
Okay Lucas it’s now or never… you can do this! You know she is worth it! You have to fight for her!
When the doors opened my heart stops at the sight in front of me. Skylar.
She is curled up on the elevator floor with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her legs and hands are dripping with bright red blood and she is shaking. I drop the folder to the lobby floor and immediately run to her and fall to my knees.
“OH MYGOD! SKYLAR! Look at me, angel!” I scream as I try to pinpoint where she is hurt. Frantically scanning her body, I discover that the blood is coming from her right hand.
She continues sitting there with a completely blank stare.
“Please, Skylar. You’re scaring me, baby!” I plead as I pull her into my arms. It feels so good to hold her in my arms again, but I hadn’t wanted it to be this way. Gently, I brush the curls away from her face and cup her face with my hands. I’m now face to face with my gorgeous girl. Her beautiful eyes are both glazed and unfocused and are red from crying.
“SKYLAR! Please look at me, it’s me, Lucas.”
Finally, she blinks out of her daze and looks at me with a shocked expression. She looks around at the elevator door and seems to realize her surroundings. She pushes me away from her as she begins to stand.
“What are you doing here?” she says with anger in her questioning tone.
“I’m here to see you, but right now we need to get you to a doctor.”
“I don’t need a doctor… OUCH,” she says as she tries to open her hand.
“Are you hurt anywhere else? Did Thorne do this to you?” I ask with rage in my voice.
If he did this, I am going to fucking rip his throat out of his body and feed it to him.
“No. No… I did this... I got upset,” she answers with a pained look on her face.
I reach my hands out and tenderly hold her injured hand and she hesitantly lets me examine it.
“He must have upset you pretty bad for you to hit an elevator wall. What were you arguing about anyway? Let me guess you were fighting over what kind of cake you wanted at the wedding,” I say in a cold tone. I want her to know just how much it was hurting me that she is getting married to him.
“Why the hell do
you care anyway, Lucas? You’re the one who dumped me remember? Or at least I’m assuming you dumped me since you haven’t bothered to call me since December. And not that it’s any business of yours, but there isn’t going to be a wedding!” she says angrily shoving me and yanks her injured hand away.
“OUCH!” She screams out in pain and holds her arm to her body.
“First, I’m taking you to the doctor to get that hand looked at. Then we can discuss things later. Can you walk?”
She nods and I have the doorman pull my Aston Martin around to the front. He stares at both of us with wide eyes when he sees me lift her up and put her in the car.
She slaps me on the chest with her good hand and narrows her eyes.
“Put me down right now, Lucas! I told you I can walk! ”
“And I can carry you, besides, your barefoot and there is no way in hell that I’m letting you walk outside on that pavement without shoes on your feet,” I fire back at her. I gently lower her and place her in the seat and secure the seat belt around her body. She huffs at me and rolls her eyes. Smiling, I close her door and make my way around to the driver’s side.
What a stubborn, fucking gorgeous woman!
Skylar
“Well, Ms. Rose, it’s not broken, but you have a pretty nasty injury there. I’m going to have my nurse wrap your hand up good and tight. You’ll need to keep it wrapped and dry for at least a week or so. I’m going to prescribe you something for the pain and you will need to take these as directed in order to keep the pain tolerable. The next couple of days that hand is really going to be bothering you,” the doctor says as he tears off the prescription from his pad and hands it to me.
“Thank you so much, Doctor,” I reply as I take the piece of white paper in my hand. Just as he is about to open the door he turns to me and begins speaking.
“Oh, and try to not slam your hand in any more car doors,” he teases and walks out of the room. I hate to lie about how I had hurt my hand, but there is no way that I am going to be confessing to him what I had actually done.
A few minutes later, the nurse enters the room and starts cleaning and wrapping my injured hand. Before she leaves the room, she gives me instructions on how to care for it and warns me to contact them if it doesn’t heal within the next week. Looking down at the cold floor, I am grateful that she had given me the thick socks and scrubs when I arrived.
Lucas is waiting patiently for me in the waiting room when I walk out of the doctor’s office. He is studying something on his phone, but when he sees me coming out, he quickly tucks it away.
I wave my newly bandaged hand at him and say, “Not broken.”
He appears relieved by my response, but the concern is still very evident in his emerald eyes.
“Um…do you mind taking me to Kylie’s apartment? I don’t have my purse with me and I certainly don’t want to get into a cab looking like this,” I say as I point at my attire.
“Yes, of course I’ll take you, Skylar,” he says as he leads me out to the parking garage. I surprisingly don’t cringe when he places his hand on the small of my back. I just don’t get why he is here after all this time. He even looks at me the same way he had before he left. Why is that? As we head across town to Kylie’s apartment, I decide to break the awkward silence that fills the car.
“Thank you for bringing me, Lucas, but you didn’t have to stay.”
“You’re welcome, Skylar, and yes I did need to stay. I was worried about you… I still am. Are you sure you are okay?” he asks me with a look of genuine concern.
“I told you the doctor says that my arm isn’t broken, so I’m fine.”
It’s my heart that is broken, and I am far from being fine.
“I’m not talking about your arm, Skylar. You were completely out of it when I found you in that elevator earlier, so that makes you definitely NOT fine. What the fuck happened anyway and I want the truth?” he demands as he continues to fight downtown Austin traffic.
“We broke up. He did something I can never forgive him for, okay? I don’t want to talk about it anymore!” I say coldly.
I refuse to talk about what had happened with Sebastian. I shouldn’t care and I should be at the police station right now revealing his part in the crash, but I can’t and I never will. I had buried that a long time ago and that is where it will stay. I will never speak of that night again to anyone. Anyway, I can’t even deal with the fact that the silver bracelet remains in my shorts pocket that I am wearing beneath these scrubs. To be honest, I don’t know if I can ever look at it again. Something that once had meant the world to me now represents nothing but pain, sadness and lies.
“Skylar, please let me in,” he says and I pull my mind back to him.
“I’m never letting anyone in again, Lucas. I gave him my heart and he crushed it. I don’t want to fix the pieces and move on because I’ve been through enough in my life.”
“What are you going to do now?” he asks as he pats the leather steering wheel. Traffic has now come to a complete standstill.
Shit! This means I’m trapped in here with him and all of his prying questions.
“I don’t know, Lucas, okay? I DON’T FUCKING KNOW! I know that I can’t go back to work for him. I mean damn it, I can’t even go back to get my damn purse right now. So, I DON’T FUCKING KNOW, alright?” I shout at him. I lean my head against the cool tinted glass. I’m relieved that no one can see me through them and then I close my eyes.
Who the hell does he think he is anyway? I don’t owe him a damn explanation. Why is he even back here in Austin?
After a few minutes of silence, I hear him draw in a deep breath and turn to me.
Oh shit, he wants to talk more. DAMN IT! MOVE TRAFFIC!
“Skylar, we need to talk… about why it is that I came back here.”
WHOA… Did he just read my mind or something?
“Why did you Lucas? Why now?” I ask him. I just want him to explain why I never heard back from him after he left for Paris. I mean, it is true I was confused about my feelings when we were together, but he never even explained his silence. I had cared so much about him and he had hurt me.
“I came because…” he hesitates looking away from me quickly.
“Because?” I reply.
“I came because of you, Skylar. I came back because of you.”
The shock of his words hit me hard in the stomach.
He had come back because of me? After all these months?
“I can’t let you marry him without knowing something first… I had to explain it to you,” he says and I am still too shocked to respond more than a nod back to him.
“I came back at Christmas to surprise you, Skylar. I was at the Christmas party…I saw the two of you in his office, so I left. I flew back to Paris that same night because I had been so hurt. I had wanted you to care about me the way I cared about you. It had been easier to just leave you and Austin behind. And then…then I got your text at New Years. I didn’t know how to respond back to you. I didn’t even know why you were contacting me if you were with him. I’ve spent the last seven months trying to get you out of my mind with every way possible, but I can’t, because I fell in love with you, Skylar. When I got your wedding invitation, it almost sent me over the edge. I had to come back because I can’t let you marry him without me telling all of this to you.”
“Lucas, you don’t have to explain yourself any further, I get it okay? I hurt you and I’m so sorry that I couldn’t return what you felt for me,” I sadly reply. “But you act like I cheated on you with him. You are the one who stopped calling and texting me. What was I supposed to think, Lucas? Besides, I got the message loud and clear when I called your hotel that night. I should have known you hadn’t changed.”
“Wait. What are you talking about? You called my hotel room? When?” He asks me.
“I was worried because I hadn’t talked to you for long. I thought something bad might have happened so I called you room. I heard the two of you,
Lucas.”
“What?” he says with a confused look on his devastatingly handsome face.
“When you answered the phone, there was a girl speaking in French and she was laughing. It was 2 am, so what else would you be doing with a girl in your room at that hour?” I shot back at him.
“No, Skylar, you were all I thought about when I was in Paris. I remember getting a phone call in my hotel room one night and I couldn’t get anyone to answer me back on the line. The woman laughing was CeCe, my best friend Tomas’ wife. She and Tomas had flown in to visit and they had just stopped by. They were both in my hotel suite when you called me. I would never have cheated on you, Skylar. I loved you. I worked like crazy just to be able to make it back to Austin in time to spend Christmas with you. I had even bought you a plane ticket in hopes that you would come spend New Year’s with me. Of course, when I saw you with Sebastian I figured you had moved on without me.”
I feel like I have been hit in the stomach. He hadn’t cheated on me? And when he had flown home to surprise me, he finds me in the arms of Sebastian. Of course, now it all makes sense.
“I don’t expect you to love me back, Skylar. I just needed to make things right between us...for me, not for you. I need us to at least be friends. Do you think we can at least be that, even after everything I have just told you? I think right now you need another friend.”
I don’t know what to say to him.
Had he really loved me? Is he saying he still loves me? SHIT! I can’t deal with this right now!
I can’t wrap my mind around any of this. The sad thing is that I have really missed him. He looks at life so optimistically and always made me laugh. He is the complete opposite of Sebastian and I found his happiness very contagious. When we had been together, he made me feel like I was the most important person in the world, even right now. He was always honest with me about everything.