“That you’re like every other man I’ve ever met. A real dick. Let me go.”
“Clara?”
She shoved at him, her hands making contact with the muscled wall of his body and the expensive suit he wore.
“Look.” She finally made eye contact with him, her body shaking under the dark light he put her under. The warningBEWARE OF DOGrose up like hell’s eternal dark gate in her head. “I’m not the liar here. You obviously have issues, issues I can’t begin to deal with. And Reid, twenty minutes ago I would’ve tried. But I can’t do this.” She shoved at him again. “I can’t deal with this hot and cold, freezing and burning emotional rollercoaster you live your life on. I think I could grow up and move on, learn another lesson and adapt, forgive and forget, but you, you can’t.”
He didn’t let her go, instead, he stepped from her seat and back outside her flyer, but his hand held her wrist and held it tight. Clara knew her pulse was beating the pads of his fingers to a pulp. He searched her eyes, her face, and her soul was put under the spotlight of his gaze and she held up under it.
“I’m not the liar, here, Reid, you are.” His grip on her tightened but she continued, “I’ve never lied to you once. Omitted my past, yes, but I never lied. I’m not some meddlesome-fucking-girl that showed up randomly in your life to ruin it. Sorry if I had, I truly am but I’m not the one with all the power here. I’ve never had any power to begin with. I came here knowing what I was signing up for.” Clara sighed and rested her forehead against the flyer’s manual wheel.
“You’re pregnant, regardless of what you say, I can’t let you leave knowing that. You don’t understand.”
That’s all he cares about? All he has to say?
“You know what?” She laughed softly. “After I woke up from surgery, I was confused why you left all the scarring on my stomach. I know you could’ve gotten rid of it like you’ve gotten rid of the surgical scars. It bothered me but I let it drop. Because, at some point, I stopped feeling them. They were there and that was it. I felt stronger bearing them. Why did you leave them? You want me to forgethim. I know you do.”
Clara looked down at herself and the morning shadows that engulfed her body.
“If I healed them. It would only be cosmetic,” His voice was low and it made her shiver in spite of everything. “I wanted... I don’t know. I wanted to own them,” Reid finished on a whisper. “I wanted you to stop thinking ofhim, but not because I forced you to.”
His answer hurt but she already knew she wouldn’t like whatever answer he’d give her. But it proved her point. Right from the beginning, she knew what kind of man Reid was—controlling, dominant, a leader. Like her ex. She gravitated toward him because even though he possessed traits like Santino, he was still the exact opposite in everything that mattered.
“I’m glad you didn’t get rid of them,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because they’ll always be a reminder of him. I’ll never forget him and what he did, nor do I want to. Thank you for your honesty, though.”
Reid let go of her as if he were burned.
Clara wasted no time in shutting the door and leaving him behind, leaving the facility behind, passing through the open gates with nothing to stop her. And when she was hundreds of miles away, when her flyer sputtered to a stop well beyond the wastes of America, and she had no more fumes left in her or her vehicle to keep going, she cried.
Chapter Thirteen
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