The air is lost from my lungs and I’m convinced my heart stops beating entirely. While my mind is telling me, screaming at me to turn around and walk out, I rush to the desk.
I look at all the pages on his desk, filled with my previous name, current name, Ryan’s name, his parents, their car accident that killed them.
Both of our entire lives, scattered across Tyler’s desk. I move his mouse on his screen to see just more details of my entire life spread on the screen.
I can’t stop looking, regardless of the fact I already know what this all is. Regardless of the fact that fiery rage is fueled with each violation of my privacy I see.
Every single bill in our names, all the places we lived, GPA’s, jobs, sports, criminal records, travel, our marriage license, ways to get it annulled, divorced, emails with judges, lawyers, bounties, investigators, his security, every location Ryan has been to since the moment he left our hometown. Which happens to be every single cityTylerhas gone to on hisbusinesstrips.
I bring a shaky hand to my mouth, trying to stifle the screams I want to unleash. He’s been his own personal investigator, a bounty hunter, a predator tracking down his fucking ultimate prey.
He promised and hebrokeit.
He shattered every sliver of trust I’ve gained in him since the moment we met. The pieces of my broken heart that somehow got sewed together by that thread connecting us starts to unravel, releasing all my jagged edges that causes internal bleeding to my soul.
How can I possibly stay and expect him to make a promise when he can’t even keep all the others he made to me?
He broke his fucking promise.
Sucking in a breath, I take steps back, realizing the violation of my life in front of me. This whole time, this whole time he’s not only been lying to me butinvestigatingme. Investigating Ryan. Mapping out all the ways to find him and kill him. Even when he promised not to.
Everything you could know about my life sits on this desk.
I was ready….I was ready totry.
For him.
For me.
For us.
Ready to stay. But he broke his promise to me. It wasn’t the first, and it clearly won’t be the last. How can I derail my plan, put myself at risk for someone so willing to betray me? And who will most likely continue to.
I see the medical records and police reports of that night, the pictures of the face I wished I didn’t have to see again. The face of a broken, battered girl. The face of the girl who died that day. My whole life, right here.
A sob escapes my throat as I hold up the pictures of my injuries from that night. The photos I wished no one else would ever see. The bruise along my cheek bone, the gashes all over my face. The bruises on my thighs from his knees pinning me down. The handprints on my hips and the bruises on my ribs. The busted lips. The blood coating my face. The scar on my neck from when he strangled me with my own stethoscope.
The hollowness and death that sat in those eyes I don’t even recognize.
I don’t recognize that girl.
That’s not me. That girl, she died that night. And I wanted her to be left there. Yet somehow, Tyler resurrected her.
I know he will say he did this because he loves me, but that’swhat Ryan said, too. And just because someone does something in the name of love doesn’t make it right.
It doesn’t make it hurt less.
“Sunny.” I hear his voice. It’s breathy. It’s panicked. It’s fearful.
As he should be.
He stands in the doorway, his chest moving up and down rapidly as he holds a hand up in surrender. His wet hair slicked back as if he ran his hands through it. Wearing a white t-shirt and gray sweatpants, looking as devastating as I feel.
I drop the picture back onto the desk and meet his stare.
We don’t say anything.
We don’t move.
