Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,112
frown as he stared across the room at the couple standing by the liquor hutch. Except it wasn’t a couple, or they shouldn’t be, because Jamie was mine, not Angela’s. By the body language alone, they could have fooled me.
There was very little space between them as his hand was rested intimately on her hip. They were smiling as they talked in hushed tones. The way they looked at each other made it seem like the rest of the world didn’t exist. Jamie reached out to grab a lock of her golden hair, twisting it around his finger as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. When she blushed, something in me fractured, sending all the pain straight to my heart.
I went dark. I not only let my darkness surface, I relinquished everything to it. My will. My sanity.
I stormed towards Skank Barbie, fisted my hand around her beautiful golden hair, and yanked her backwards to the floor. She let out an ear piercing shriek. Still holding her hair, I straddled her stomach on the floor and just started swinging. I delivered closed fisted punch after punch. I barely registered my knuckles splitting, but I definitely felt her nose crunch. It gave me a fucking high. It made me wonder what else I could crush. I released her hair to wrap both hands around her neck and squeezed until the muscles in my arms shook.
“Maura, that’s enough,” I heard Stefan say. I ignored him. “Alright, Jameson. You may intervene.”
Arms wrapped around my waist and ripped me off of her. No! I kicked and struggled. I dug my nails into the arms around me, drawing a hiss from my captor.
Stefan stepped into my line of sight, blocking my view of Skank Barbie, who I thought looked a lot better with a bloody face. “Take a deep breath,” he ordered.
I didn’t want to listen to him. I wanted to kill her. Bleed her dry as I watched her pain and fear. So I fought by kicking and hitting. My captor grunted when I landed a kick to his shin and my hand smacked flesh behind me.
“Maura!” Stefan roared, startling me. “Regain control.”
I didn’t want my control back. Be it a split psyche or a split soul, regardless, my other half was doing what it was created for. To protect me from what I couldn’t handle. I didn’t want to face the reality that another man had betrayed me. Except this wasn’t just another man. This was Jamie. The last person I’d ever assumed would hurt me. I trusted him more than anyone. I love—no. I wouldn’t say it and I’d never admit it. There was only one thing in common between my relationship with Tom and what I'd had with Jamie. Me. I was the reason they'd left me. If Jamie could do this to me, it proved it.
Stefan stood before me, refusing to back down until I did. Damn him.
With no other choice, I relented. While holding my father's eyes, tears pooled in mine. My pain surfaced first, slowly followed by everything else. Rage. Sadness. The longer my sight was cut off from Angela the more in control I felt. I looked over Stefan’s shoulder and saw Vincent standing by the dining room entrance. He was wide-eyed and his face was a little pale. With Stefan and Vincent in sight, that told me Jamie was the one holding me.
I grit my teeth. “Put me down.” Stefan looked over my shoulder and nodded at Jamie, who slowly released me. I stepped away from him, still giving him my back. “I warned you,” I said over my shoulder, refusing to look at him. He didn’t deserve to see me like this. “If you touched her, I’d kill her. You’re lucky Stefan let you stop me, or she would be dead.” I took in another calming breath, but it was futile. “Whatever we had, it’s over. I don’t want to fucking see or speak to you again.” I glanced at Stefan. The shift of my eyes caused the tears to fall. He was hiding what he was feeling as he watched them roll down my face and drip off my chin. “Get your whore out of my house.” It was the last thing I bit out before I stormed out of the room.
I had to leave the house. I couldn’t be there with him and I didn’t want Stefan hunting me down to talk about it either. So I left. I got in my