Bitter Kisses (It's Just High School #3) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,72
in front of that bitch was a proposal then you’re out of your small sized brain!” Nicky spits back. “You’re not a man, Nathan! You’re nothing and you’re always be in the shadow, struggling behind everyone else just like you were abandoned!”
Wow.
The hurt and abuse here is deep, but the trauma, Jesus, I have no idea how deep that runs. Is it any wonder that I turned out a mess myself? In love with someone I know isn’t right for me?
I’ve heard enough. I can’t take it anymore.
I fall back into the abyss.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Mia
Five days later
I feel someone breathing over me and become alert immediately. My flight-fight response kicks in as another ugly bout of déjà vu hits me.
“I know you can hear me, princess.”
I tense up! I was right to be on guard as I hear Nathan speaking over me. He must have been the one who woke me up.
“It’s the middle of the night and that bitch of a woman you call your mother is in the bathroom,” he whispers menacingly. “But I know in whatever state you’re in mentally, I fucking hope you will remember these words because princess, they will be the hell you’ve been begging for with your recent actions.”
No! Get away from me!
“You thought you could disrespect me?” I hear him growl over me. Internally, I’m screaming the roof off of here.
I hate you!
“Look at you, if you had just kept you word and not broken our agreement, you wouldn’t be here like this,” he whispers, I swear I can feel his hot breath on me and I want to flinch and get away from him. “If you hadn’t butted in and conspired to save John’s son and let him go to jail as he should’ve fucking done, none of this would have happened!”
He would still have sold me!
That knowledge is clear! God, when I wake up I’m going to make sure I put a hurt on this man so big, he’ll fucking feel it in hell. I’m going to expose him for the disgusting man he is and everything he’s done!
“So, this is what’s going to happen from this point on,” his voice drops to and I realize then why he sounds funny. He’s panicking! His cocky confidence from before is gone. “You are going to wake up and pin everything on that bastard, John’s son. The fires, both of them. The murder of Matthews’ son, everything! You’re going to say he did, Amy.”
I lie there, feeling useless and frustrated and my seemingly endless state of paralysis. I want to wake up so bad and tell him to fuck off!
“Because guess what, princess? They already have a tip off that it was him, and with you as a witness, you will tell them that he kidnapped you and that those fine Matthews boys came to save you!”
What? Is he fucking serious? Still, he goes on unperturbed, but his voice is still shaky, rushed and not at all like it was when he was issuing out commandments for me.
“One way or the other John and his entire breed is going down! That little talkative one is already being suspected of arson. It won’t be long until evidence of that turns up, I assure you. Hell, the entire world has heard how much those boys hate the Matthews. The animosity has been well documented and now, one of them boys is dead? I wonder what you’ll think of that when you wake up.”
Just then, I hear the water running. Nicky must be coming back now.
“I will burn them all to hell if you don’t comply!” he whispers in a rush.
I lie there, almost reeling. I remember something Nancy told me before.
“Mia, a desperate man is a dangerous man.”
Was she warning me earlier on about Nathan? Trying to trigger my memory so I always stay on guard? Both my aunt and my mother have protected me. And now, I can see with perspective that they’ve gone through their own hell with their parents but through all that, they survived.
I have to survive.
I have to do my best.
So, when I hear Nicky walk back into the room, my mind starts racing.
What do I do now?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Julian
Mia.
When I fucking close my eyes, she’s all I see.
At first, she is full of life, smiling at me as she walks backwards into the crystal blue waters of Majorca, Spain and then as if a flip has been flipped, she’s suddenly lifeless in my arms.