No.I couldn’t let this happen. Not now. Not when I had something to do.
“Piper?” Mitch asked again. He knelt a foot away, his usual distance, but it was too close. I gasped and tried to move. “It’s just me. I won’t hurt you.”
But Joey had hurt me. No, it was worse.
He hurt someone I loved.
Blearily, I looked around the place I used to call home. I recognized every picture on the wall. I’d spent countless hours on their gray couch.
Now, it all felt wrong. It felt like a prison.
“We should get her to her room,” Joey was saying as my mind finally cleared enough for me to think. “She needs to calm down.”
“You’re not getting me anywhere,” I snapped. Slowly, I shook away the memories and glared.
“Piper, I did this to protect you. I stand by what I did.”
“What did you do?” Mitch asked.
“He ...” My voice cracked. “He exposed Theo’s past to everyone in Strawberry Springs.”
“He’s a drug dealer,” Joey defended. “He had it coming!”
“He . . . Theo is . . .” Mitch blinked.
“Theo had terrible parents. He’s from a family that deals drugs, and then left. He made a new life, and Joey decided to rip that apart.”
“To protect you,” Joey said. “Don’t you see that?”
“I don’t need your fucking protection,” I snapped. “I can make my own choices, and if this is one you stand by, you’re not my friend.”
“We’re like family.”
“Yeah, like my birth family. Toxic as fuck.”
Joey reared back at my words, and I couldn’t regret them.
“Sorry, Mitch. But I have to go.” I gave him one last glance, taking in the horror on his face as he looked at his fiancé, and then I ran for the door.
When I got into my car, I wanted to scream and cry. I wanted to lose my entire mind.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for that
So I put the car into gear and forced myself to keep going.
I made it halfway to the highway before I had to pull over. My breath came out in heaves and I couldn’t keep my eyes on the road. I pulled over into a random, empty parking lot and locked the doors.
My chest was tight. It felt like I wasn’t breathing, even though I was. I couldn’t believe this had happened, but I also had no fucking idea what to do.
That made it all worse.
I sobbed as I leaned my head on the steering wheel. I cursed Joey. I cursed my luck. I cursed everything. Finally, I had things right. I was with a man I loved, and now ...
Now he would be leaving.
Would he even say goodbye?
The pain hit harder the second I realized I had no idea what I was going to do. I needed to get back to Strawberry Springs and fix this, but would he even be there?
