It was love.
But a man couldn’t straddle two paths.
He had to choose. He had to choose hope over darkness, love over hate.
And right now, with dark satisfaction so close at hand, it was difficult. But on the other side...
Faith could be on the other side.
If he was strong enough to turn away from this now, Faith was on the other side.
“Go away,” he said, his heart thundering heavily, adrenaline pulsing through his veins.
“What?”
“I don’t ever want to see you again. I’m going to write you a check. Not for a whole lot of money, but for some. Trade in your car, for God’s sake. Don’t be an idiot. I’m not giving you money foryou, I’m doing it for me. To clear this. Let it go. Whatever you think I did to you... Whatever you really wanted to do to me... It doesn’t matter. Not anymore. We are done. And after you cash that check I want you to never even speak my name again. Do you understand me?”
“I don’t want a check,” she said, taking a step forward, wrapping her hands around his shirt. “I want you.”
He jerked her hands off him, his lip curling. “You don’t. You don’t want me. And I sure as hell don’t want you. But I’m also not going to let you suffer for the rest of your life. Do you know why not? Because everything in me, every natural thing in me,wantsto. Wants to make you regret everything you’ve ever done, wants to make you regret you ever heard my name. But I won’t do it. I won’t let that part of myself win. Because I met a woman. And I love her. I love her, Alicia. You don’t even know about the kind of love I found with her. The kind of love she has for me. I don’t deserve it. Dammit, I have to try to be the kind of man that deserves it. So I want you to walk away from me. Because I’m choosing to let you go. I’m choosing to get on a different road.
“Don’t you dare follow me.”
“Levi...”
“Leave now, and you get your money. But if you don’t...”
She stared at him. For a long time. As if he might change his mind. As if she had some kind of power over him. She didn’t. Not over any part of him. Not his anger. Not his love. Not his future.
It was over, all of it. Her hold on him. The hold his childhood had over him.
Because love was stronger.
Faith was stronger.
“Okay,” she said, finally. “I’ll go.”
“Good.”
He watched her, unmoving, as she got back in her Mercedes and drove away. And as she did, he looked up into the sky and saw a bird flying overhead.
Free.
He was free.
Whatever happened next, Faith had given him that freedom.
But he wanted her to share it with him. More than his next breath, more than anything else.
He’d lived a life marked by anger. A life marked by greed. He’d been saddled with the consequences of the poison that lived inside other people, and he’d taken that same poison and let it grow and fester inside him.
But he was done with that now.
He was through letting the darkness win.
He was ready. He was finally ready to walk out of that cell and into freedom.
With Faith.
