much I want it.
And neither can he.
My eyes flick open to lock with his, the anger welling inside me until it’s spilling over my tongue with every word I give him in response.
“What do you think can come of this Ezra? What will we be? In agony like Ava and Mason every day? Two people who know that no matter how hard they love each other and how desperately they hang on, that in the end there’s nothing they can do about being torn apart. I’m marrying Mason in less than two years.”
“We’ll fucking fix that,” he growls, refusing yet again to hear the truth.
Apparently, I have to keep stabbing and stabbing until I find the one barrier he’ll never be able to tear down. Ezra won’t leave unless he’s angry. So that’s what I attempt to make him.
“Oh, yeah? And what about Damon? Huh? What about him? It would destroy him if we ended up together.”
Tears leak from my eyes, and he kisses them away, his hands coming up to cup my cheeks.
Ezra presses his forehead to mine and traps my eyes.
“He was never supposed to fall in love. You’ve always been mine, Emily, you know that! He was only part of this for fun.”
I just want to scream, but I laugh instead. How can he think any of this is possible?
“Yeah, I remember when he was brought in. For your fucking amusement. For your fun. And look what you fucking did by playing those games. This isn’t my fault.”
“You’re mine,” he insists. And he’s not wrong. But that still doesn’t fix anything.
He says it over and over, as if just that phrase makes everything okay, but all I can do is shake my head and knock his hands away.
“I’m sorry, Ezra. But there’s too much standing between us.”
With a palm against his chest, I do what I should have done the first second he talked to me at the engagement party. I shove him back.
“I love you, but there is no possibility of fixing this. It doesn’t matter how we feel. It’s over.”
Knowing I only have a few seconds before he stops me again, I turn and open the door, practically sprinting through the restaurant like a crazy woman being chased.
Bursting outside, I keep going, my legs burning until I reach my car, my heart shredded as I climb inside and start the engine.
My tires squeal as I shoot out from the parking spot, my hands clenching the wheel and my teeth grinding together.
I can’t do this anymore.
I’ve lost the will to fight.
Ezra has finally bled me of every last drop of strength I have, and I know he won’t stop until he’s won.
Except, he can’t win because there is no solution.
The sad truth is he will just keep tearing down walls until we’re both buried beneath the rubble.
Ezra doesn’t know how to stop.
He doesn’t know how not to fight.
I have to be the one to show him.
Ezra
I won’t accept it.
Her excuses.
Her problems.
Sure, she’s right about all of it, but I’m not bowing down to defeat. Not in this. Never when it comes to her.
Like Ivy said, I took a good, long look in the mirror. I know my problems, know my weaknesses, know the nightmares that wake me up at night and shut me down.
No, I’m not the guy to come to when you need a shoulder to cry on, or even for good advice, but I am the person who tears down barriers and burns problems to the ground.
Emily has been fucking me up for years because she refuses to believe in me, refuses to see that, despite my issues, despite the life I’ve lived, despite all the bruises and cuts, the fights and violence, she is the only woman in this world who matters to me.
Yes, I’ve been a jackass with her since the engagement party. I’ve struck out with insults and barbs, snapped my teeth at her and hurt her without considering the consequences. But that’s because I was trapped by her refusal to see beyond the problems, by her stubborn hold on the belief that we couldn’t move past them.
I allowed her will to dampen my own, and that’s not how a man like me fights. That’s not how I win battles.
Emily has drawn a line, and either I lay down and die on one side of it, or I step the fuck over it and show her I’ll move mountains if that’s what it takes to make it possible for us to