If it’s Nicky, I really have nothing to say to her after what she just revealed. But she keeps calling until I have no other choice but to answer.
“If you’re calling to tell me more of the childhood memories that I forgot, then you can shove it. I don’t want to hear anymore,” I croak, hating the way my voice breaks at the end when I answer.
But the offending silence at the end of the line has the hairs at the back of my neck stand up on end. The blood in my veins starts rushing as my heart starts pounding so hard, I gasp.
“Hello?” I whisper.
“Little Minx.”
And there it is. His deep, rough voice that makes shivers race up and down my spine. The same one I hear in every nightmare, telling me of my crimes and how much he hates me.
“I know you’re still there,” he says, and I can tell he’s trying his hardest not to be angry. Even though I’ve known the guy for a few months, I can still discern his moods.
“How did you get this number?” I whisper, now on high alert.
“You think I wouldn’t find you?” he questions, the dark notes in his deep voice washing over me like a soothing shower.
“So, you’re stalking me now?”
He’s quiet for a while and I swear, I’m not breathing, waiting for him to speak or for him to say something that will make me feel a plethora of wild emotions that I can’t control as only he can. I haven’t felt this awake or aware of everything around me since the night when…
“You don’t sound like you’re surprised by that,” he says. “In fact, if I didn’t know the cold, black heart in your chest, I’d say you sound like you’re a bit relieved that I’m stalking you.”
I press the phone harder to my ear, listening to the way he breathes and the intimate, low voice he uses when he talks to me. It’s all still there.
“I guess I always knew you were a bit unhinged and stalkerish,” I murmur then sniffle, as more silent tears run down my cheeks. I haven’t stopped crying since Nicky’s call.
“When it comes to you, Little Minx, I’ll be any-fucking-thing just to get to you,” Julian whispers hotly, angry, and impatient. “Why the fuck did you run?”
Not where are you, no.
“Julian…”
“Don’t you dare start lying to me now,” he seethes, making that cold, black thing he says is in my chest pound even harder.
The anger I’ve been suppressing for days now comes hurtling to the surface and in that moment, I grab on to it with everything I am as if my sanity, my mind, my integrity and soul depends on this moment.
“You don’t have a right to know what I do or don’t do,” I grit out, surprised at the viciousness of my voice. “You and your fucking family are nothing more than vultures preying on the weak.”
“What the fuck does that mean, Mia?” he demands.
“Oh, you don’t know?” I mock. “You know I have to hand it to you, the way you played me for weeks. Messed with my mind while you took over my body only to help your father destroy my family.”
“Is that what you fucking believe?”
“That’s what I know, damn you!”
“Mia, I’m not my fucking father!” he growls. “I told you this before and I’ll repeat myself again because you like jumping to conclusions. I had no idea what he was doing and I sure as hell didn’t know why he was doing that shit to your family, but you have to understand, he wasn’t targeting you.”
“Yeah right.” I shake my head. “You didn’t know what he was doing but you’re defending him anyway? Wow.”
“Fuck this, Mia, everything is so damn complicated.”
“Sure, betrayal and heartbreak is always complicated, isn’t it?” I mock, then glance down at my tender, slightly swollen wrists and just like that, all the anger I just built-up in the short space of this call melts away, as a chilling sense of helplessness coupled with my own self-loathing grips me by the throat.
“Everything about your family and mine is complicated, Mia, but I swear, no one was gunning to destroy you.”
“Yeah, sure,” I murmur. “I guess that’s what you tell each other in your house so you can sleep at night.”
“Fuck, Mia,” he breathes, his agitation and anger so clear with each word he utters. “I’m not having this conversation with you over the fucking phone. I’m coming to get you.”
“Don’t you