Naked Hearts: A Billionaire Single Father Romance (The Broken Hearts Series Book 1) by Valentina

Author:Valentina [Valentina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Two Souls Publishing.
Published: 2022-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Lorenzo

Arabel’s throat expanded as she swallowed hard, clutching her locket in both hands as she worked on regulating her breathing. Her body was tense. Her eyes broadcasted pain so loud, it rang in my ears and rebounded in my heart. Her ocean-blue eyes glinted with roaring waves of tears, but she refused to keep crying. She stood tall and stoic after recounting the worst time in her life.

She was everything I wasn't. I stood in front of her, my expression hard but my insides crumbling. I wiped the tears off my face with my hands, too overwhelmed to care about crying in front of her. The thick loamy scent of horse I'd always loved mixed with the filthy stench of human depravity, making my stomach churn. Bile rose from my gut, and I gulped it down, hoping she wouldn’t notice it and mistake my hatred for that rapist motherfucker, as disgust toward her. Because what I felt was quite the opposite. I wanted to hold her, comfort her, love her.

But rage and feelings of inadequacy wouldn’t let me. This wasn’t my first time dealing with the pain of a loved one who had been sexually assaulted. Even so, I still couldn’t figure out how a man was supposed to handle this kind of situation. How was I supposed to handle it? Rape was hard enough but when combined with the fact that fucktard beat her to within an inch of her life, it became too much for my emotional fortitude to withstand. I didn’t know how to be strong enough for her. I didn’t want her to become yet another woman I’d failed.

The internal cowardice I'd grown accustomed to since Grace was now agonizing. It gnawed at my soul, leaving spineless holes where courage should be. Her eyes pleaded for me to say something, do something. But since I couldn’t give her what she wanted, I gave her my back, slowly and deliberately walking to a straw-bale bench at the other end of the stables. My legs wobbled as I lowered myself, hands gripping my knees to keep my world from spinning out of control. I dropped my head as images flashed through my mind, making me shudder. Images of Arabel being punched, kicked, cut, and violated.

It was too much.

I wondered how George must’ve felt when he found out. Pain twisted my heart as the pictures of Arabel in such an unfathomable situation were replaced by my sister’s face, and then my daughter’s. The reality that this could happen to any and all of the women I loved more than life itself devastated me.

I gritted my jaw as devastation turned into the darkest, most violent rage.

Once bitten, twice shy.

I clenched my fists as the anger rolled off of me, spreading into every corner of the barn. I wanted to kill the man who had done this to her. I wanted to torture him until he begged for death.

“Enzo?” Arabel’s voice was a broken whisper. I didn’t answer, just kept staring at the straw-covered ground.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.