What do you do when you meet your soulmate at seven-years-old?
You give…
You live…
And you love…
Until you hear the words, “I just don’t love you anymore.”
Putting an end to us.
To you.
To. Me.
Right then and there.
“I’m just fighting for our family! I’m just fighting for you!” I stood abruptly, hovering above Bailey. Losing my goddamn mind. “Don’t you see that?! How can you not see that?! How can you not see me?!”
“You’re scaring m—”
“I don’t give a fuck!” I seethed, unable to hold back the anger ripping through my entire body any longer. “I’m standing right here! Right. Fucking. Here!” My foot connected with the ground in a loud, hard thud, my hands raked through my unruly hair.
Fucking pissed.
“I’m paralyzed in time with you, Beauty! Fucking stuck with nowhere else to go! Do you have any idea what this is doing to me?! To our kids?! Do you even fucking care?!”
“You need to calm down!” a familiar voice shouted from behind me as the door suddenly swung open. I should have expected it, but at this point I didn’t care anymore.
I just wanted…
Needed…
My girl.
I turned around, roaring, “You don’t tell me what to do! Do you understand me?! You don’t ever tell me what to fucking do when it comes to my wife!”
“I’m not your wi—”
I grabbed the vase filled with sunflowers off the table and chucked it across the room. It shattered upon impact, splattering water and shattering glass everywhere.
“You don’t get to say that to me!” I sternly pointed at her, and all she did was back away.
From me.
The second I reached for her, a set of strong hands grabbed my arms, pulling me back. Further and further away from my world.
“Get your fucking hands off me! Get your fucking hands off me now!”
“Please! Please! Just make him go away! I don’t want to see him anymore!” she cried out, more tears falling down the sides of her beautiful face.
“What the fuck!” I bit, shaking my head. Violently trying to fight them off. “I need you! Your kids need you! We fucking need you!”
“I don’t care! I just don’t care!”
“How can you do this?! How can you fucking do this to me?! After everything we’ve been through, Bay! After everything I’ve done for you! You’re my world! You’re my goddamn reason! I’m fighting for my fucking life! I need you to fight for it too!”
She covered her ears, her body quivered from head to toe. Cowering away from the man who once was the only person who could ever calm her.
Soothe her.
Love her.
“Don’t do this! Don’t do this to us! You need to fight, Bailey! Goddamn it, just please fucking fight for me! You can’t let go! You can’t fucking do it, baby!”
In a distant tone I’d never heard before, she repeated, “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”
“I’m sorry, but you have to go,” one of the men dragging me out ordered.
“To hell with you!” I struggled to maintain my footing, my stance on not leaving this room, but my will to fight was diminishing with each step as they continued tearing me out of the room.
“I hate him! I never want to see him again! Don’t let him come back! Please! Just keep him away from me!”
The look on her face.
The sound of her voice.
The way she was recoiling from me…
It was all too much to take, too much to bear, too much to live through, while I was hauled out of the place that was never supposed to be her home.
Before I knew what was happening, I blinked, and I was suddenly sitting in my car. Aimlessly staring out the windshield with a bottle of Jack gripped tightly in my grasp. There was nothing left of me, just a hollow shell of a man slouched over in the driver’s seat. One leg hanging out the open door with the other firmly pressed on the brake pedal.
My weighted-down head bobbed side to side, trying to remain conscious as I chugged yet another swig of the fiery burning liquor. Welcoming the sting as it soared down my throat. Except I didn’t feel a fucking thing other than the agonizing pain that had taken over my being. Not even the whiskey could make that go away.
Nothing ever could.
All the familiar happy faces ahead of me blurred together.
Their laughs.
Their smiles.
Their endless banter.
I blinked again and, for a second, the haze in my eyes subsided, gazing at Noah and his girl from afar. Making me realize I was sitting in the field of his