by Mallory Fox
He takes a step toward me.
He wants to hurt me.
I can’t speak but I can gasp.
People move in between us. Someone grabs my shoulders and pulls me back, as the officers take him outside.
Where are they taking him?
“I’m sorry,” I all but whisper it, protected behind my lawyer.
I’m a coward. I can’t even say it to his face.
He deserves that at least.
“You’re fucking sorry?” he shouts while they lead him away, a cruel snarl on his lips just like the first time we met. The attention he gives me, as always, making me shiver. Only this time, it’s shredding me apart bit by bit. A thousand tiny cuts where no one can see.
“The lying, stupid bitch is sorry. Oh, that’s a good one.”
It was only several hours ago when he gazed at me with eyes filled with such light and love that it practically burned. How could someone so in love turn so quickly? Surely, emotion that strong doesn’t just fucking die.
It doesn’t.
It can’t.
I won’t fucking let it.
I loved him. That wasn’t a lie. I need to tell him that I still love him.
“Miss… we’re going to have to ask you to come down to the station and make a statement and then to the nearby hospital for examination.”
Sully’s hand still on my shoulder squeezes to make me flinch.
The dream of Seth ends and the reality of what just happened, what I did, comes back and fucks me right in the ass.
Love him? You don’t know how to love.
Seth will laugh right in my face if those words ever graced my lips.
“In the morning,” Sully answers for me. “My client is tired, and it’s been a long day. I can verify she’s already been examined at a private clinic.”
Lawyer speak, as bland as I feel. Sully is ever protecting me. Even now I’m alone, he’s still doing his job.
“She’ll need be examined by our medical personnel if you’re going to press charges.”
“I’ll talk to her. Find out what she wants to do.”
“Alright. But we can only hold him for so long. The Montford lawyers will have him out in less than twenty-four without a statement from the girl.”
They mean me. They need a statement from me, the girl.
Still drawn to Seth, I seek him out as the officer talking to Sully walks off, but my stepbrother is no longer in the driveway. He’s gone.
Heart pounding, I shrug off Sully’s hand and move to the bay window where I can see Seth being escorted away. Held fast between two plain-clothes officers, cuffs hidden from view by Sully’s tweed jacket, he gives me one last soul-destroying look before they bend him into the back of an unmarked car.
This can’t be real.
Of course it’s fucking real. What did you think would happen? That they’d slap his wrist and tell him not to do it again? Don’t be so fucking obtuse, Pearl.
Unable to breathe without my chest aching, unable to take my eyes away, I watch them drive off. It doesn’t look like he’s being arrested, it looks like some teachers have arrived to take him to school early.
It was the best Sully could do, given the circumstances.
“Pearl… they’re going to ask you if want to press charges. Do you want to?” Sully’s voice is barely above the rushing my ears. This is all because of me. I did this.
“Pearl?”
I look up at Sully. Did I do the right thing, calling the family lawyer?
“What charges?”
“Sexual Assault charges.”
Seth will go to prison.
Skin too tight, lungs feeling like they might burst at any moment, I shake my head.
“Seth assaulted you… right? Remember why we’re doing this? You need to trigger the rape clause in the contract. I’m advising you to press charges.”
“Seth, he…” I can’t speak, the lump has come back and gotten bigger. I shake my head again, squeezing my eyes shut. It’s difficult to swallow. All I want to do is sob.
Say Seth assaulted me? Do I really want that?
A noise, a rustle of paper. I reopen my eyes to see Sully picking the shredded-up bits of paper off the hallway floor. He pockets them all, glancing over it as he does it.
He terminated the contract. Why did Seth have to go and do that now? After what we did. After what I did.
I want to hide away. I want to die.
Really, Pearl. Crying like a little girl? You’re stronger than that.
Using the back of my hand, I wipe under my eyes as I calm myself down. The skin of my hand comes away with a smear of mascara, jet black like my soul… after what I just did to Seth.
“Where are they taking him?”
Sullivan exhales, like being here is too much of an effort. “To the station for questioning. Remember, we talked about this.”
I remember. I’m supposed to say he bullied me into it. That he was grieving, and I pushed him too far. That he assaulted me to consummate the contract. Who would believe such a story?
“No,” I croak. “No charges.”
“As your lawyer, I’m advising that you consider—”
“I said no charges. He ripped it up,” I say, exhaling, trying to dissipate the pain building in my chest.
After a pause, Sully nods as though he expected it. “Fine. I’ll see to it that he’s not charged for the assault. Fraud maybe. It’s probably better if we don’t make a big deal of this to keep the press off our backs, but we’ll have to send him somewhere. If what you said really happened, we need to keep him as far away from you as possible. This scandal will break you otherwise.”
Break me or the company?
My father’s company still comes first even long after he’s been put six feet underground.
I sniff, saying nothing, letting Sully lead me to his car. If we’re not going to station, we must be going to Gram’s house. I don’t really want to go there, but I doubt Sully will let me stay here alone. On the outside, I look like a grieving daughter going to her Grandma’s house because she can’t bear to be alone after the funeral.
But inside…
I’m shattering into a thousand pieces.
Also by Mallory Fox
Thanks for reading War Of Hearts,
A Wicked Hearts At War Book One!
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Now read Wicked Hearts the next book in the series to find out what happens to Pearl & Seth.
Please note, a new version of Wicked Hearts will be released 20th June 2020. Sign up for an alert when the book goes live!
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Wicked Hearts,
Wicked Hearts At War Book One,
is available now on Amazon.
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Hearts Break,
Wicked Hearts At War Book Two,
is available now on Amazon.
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About the Author
Mallory Fox is addicted to tatted up bad boys, chocolate covered pretzels, and looking deep into heart-melting, big brown eyes... the canine kind.
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She loves to write deliciously dark romance with wicked, twisty plots about tainted-love, sweet revenge, and all kinds of emotional-rollercoaster redemption.
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