The silence looms over us. He’s too scared to do anything in fear I’ll run for the hills.
That’s exactly what I do, I fucking run.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT
TYLER
She boltspast me before I can even think to grab her.
“Sunny!” I yell out for her. But I can’t run fast enough. Panic, sheer panic courses through me.
I was going to tell her.
I was going to tell her.
“Sunny!” I yell again. She doesn’t even look at me.
She grabs her things off the kitchen island, frantically looking around the living room. Grabbing all her things she’s acquired here over the last few months.
Her half-read book on the coffee table.
Her sweater slung across a barstool.
Her stethoscope sitting on the island.
Her water bottle I always have to remind her to drink from.
Her favorite mug sitting by the coffee station.
She’s going to leave.
“Sunny,please!” I beg as I run to her. I grab her shoulders, trying to spin her to face me. She keeps her eyes closed and her shoulders move up and down with each cry.
I remove the items from her arms and set them on the island and cup her face, trying to make her look at me.
“Sunny please. No, no, no. I was going to tell you, okay? Don’t leave. Just don’t leave. This is such unchartered territory for me. These feelings I have they’re just too big. How can I say goodbye to you, Sunny? How can I say goodbye to you?” I realize tears are coming from my own fucking eyes, and my words are a mix of sobs and pain.
Her freckled nose scrunches with each sniffle as she stares at her feet, refusing to look at me again.
“You lied,” she seethes and her heated eyes meet mine. “You lied to me and you broke every fucking promise you made!”
Something in my chest cracks at her words. This wasn’t the way I planned on telling her. But here we are. And now I have to cling to that bond between us in hopes she will understand why I did everything I did.
I broke my promise.
I broke it and didn’t tell her.
I broke it and it’s been broken for a while.
It was broken before I even made it. I shattered it like a fucking piece of glass. Of course I broke that promise. How could she expect me to keep it?
I broke it becauseIbroke.
The night she finally accepted us, I sent an email to Cole to start our hunt. Because I knew that we couldn’t let something that I could easily take care of stand in our way. Because if two people can’t stay away from one another the way we couldn’t, then maybe we aren’t meant to be apart at all.
I found him. With only a first name to guide me. I fucking found him.
When Sunny shattered her phone, I had Cole take it apart and analyze everything we could there. I traced the number to a burner in Washington. My plane ticket was booked in the same hour, telling Sunny it was a work trip instead. Cole and my security team scoured every store, every hotel, trying to find him. It ended up being a dead end, but I gave it everything I had.
