Bitter Enemies (Hurtful Love Book 2) by Vera Hollins

Author:Vera Hollins [Hollins, Vera]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hurtful Love Book Two
Publisher: Vera Hollins
Published: 2023-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

Zoe

Winter break began on Friday, after a week of midterms that had sucked my soul out. With everything happening in my life, I’d done well but not as good as I usually did. On top of that, I had my hands full working on some new moves my squad had added to our cheer routine now that Nora, Kim, and Jenna were suspended and we had to replace them. According to Coach, she would ensure they were permanently kicked off the team. I hoped that would happen sooner rather than later even though it meant we’d have to work much harder to be all in sync with the new replacements right in the middle of the season.

I came home from school planning to kick the break off with some dancing in the gym, but that plan was thwarted when I entered the house to find a couple of suitcases in the foyer. I recognized one of mine even though I’d never packed it. Mrs. Hopper gave me a gaze full of concern from where she stood by the archway between the foyer and the living room, right as the sounds of shouting came from the living room.

“You’re making a mistake, Erika! This is not the solution.”

“On the contrary, I feel like I’m finally doing something right after a long, long time.”

I rushed into the living room. “What’s happening?”

Mom faced me with a determined expression. She wore a coat, hat, and gloves. “Get ready, Zoe. We’re leaving.”

“Leaving? Leaving where?”

“We’re moving to the apartment we went to see the other day. I already signed the contract. We’ll stay there for the time being.”

My body went numb. No. Everything was happening too fast. She’d never indicated that we would actually go for that apartment, let alone that she’d planned for us to move there so soon.

Why hadn’t she told me anything? She’d clearly packed all those suitcases in the hallway as though someone was chasing us out of here.

Dominic directed his imploring gaze at me. “I’ve been trying to reason with your mom. Please tell her it’s a mistake to just give up on everything we have, on this family.”

The heartbreak in his voice, his red eyes, his despair . . . it was just like when she told him she wanted to divorce him, and my stomach coiled at all of it.

I’d treated her decision to divorce him as part of her emotional trauma, something temporary, expecting her to think it over. But it wasn’t temporary. This was really happening. We were moving out.

I’d considered Dominic, this house, this family as non-permanent for so long, always prepared to get back to my old life sooner or later. But now that I was actually losing it all, it felt like I’d stepped off a cliff and dove straight into a dark abyss where only pain awaited me, and I was nowhere ready for it.

I didn’t want this. For the first time, this house felt like home. For the first time, I wanted us to stay for good and try to live like we had before Carter’s accident, when we were all happy.

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