Tangled Up in Hate by Charlotte Byrd

Author:Charlotte Byrd [Byrd, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07NDNCYFR
Publisher: Byrd Books
Published: 2019-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

24

Jackson

When I see her again…

The Aurora that wraps her arms around me looks like she has aged two decades.

Her skin is sallow, her lips are chapped, and her eyes are bewildered. I hardly recognize her.

“What happened? Are you okay?” I keep asking over and over again, but she just shakes in my arms.

So, I quit asking questions and just hold her.

After a few moments, she pulls away.

“I’m sorry,” she says. When I look at her face, there are tears streaming down her face. “I shouldn’t have ever let them take me.”

“What are you talking about? You have nothing to be sorry for.”

She buries her head in her knees and sobs. I don’t know what else to do but to just put my arm around her and hold her.

“I should’ve fought harder. I should’ve stood up to them.”

I shake my head. “You did the best you could, honey.”

I haven’t called her honey in years, but the word just slips out of my mouth.

“They killed two of my bodyguards. Just shot them in the back of their heads,” I whisper. I feel her body recoil from me. I’m not telling her to scare her. I just want her to know how lucky she is. How lucky both of us are.

“This was the best thing that could’ve happened,” I continue through her sobs. “I’m glad that there was something I could do to help you.”

She looks up at me. Her eyes are wide with grief and sorrow. Her hair falls into her face and I push it out behind her ears. It’s tangled and uncooperative and hasn’t been washed in days.

“But you lost…everything.”

“Just forty-nine percent,” I joke. “Well, with your thirty percent, I’m down to nineteen percent, I guess.”

Even though it’s simple arithmetic, I haven’t really done the exact calculation in my head until this moment.

And it seems…staggering. In the blink of an eye, I’ve gone from being the sole owner to owning less than twenty percent.

It’s so tragic that it almost makes me laugh.

But then I look at Aurora again. She shakes her head and looks down at the floor in shame. I put my finger under her chin and lift it back up.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I would’ve given them everything just to protect you.”

She brushes a tear from her cheek and then reaches back to me.

She presses her lips onto mine and opens hers.

I freeze.

Unlike the last time she kissed me, this one catches me by surprise. I take a moment before slowly sliding away from her.

“I’m sorry.” She shakes her head and buries it in my shoulder.

“It’s okay,” I mumble, uncertain as to what to do next.

She has gone through a trauma and she’s vulnerable. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I also don’t want to do anything to lead her on.

“Why did you do that?” she asks after a moment. “If you don’t love me anymore, why did you agree to their terms?”

“They gave me no choice,” I say. “They said that they were going to kill you.

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