pulled my desk chair over to my bed and started to rub my back, trying to comfort me.
The tears came back and slowly fell down my cheeks and onto my pillow. I tried to wipe them away so that Hunter would not know that I was crying again.
I heard Hunter’s phone beep with an incoming text. He stopped rubbing my back and pulled his phone out.
He cursed under his breath. “Dominic is on his way over.”
I didn’t answer right away. “I need to talk to him.” I looked up. “Alone.”
“No.”
I didn’t respond. I was not in the mood for another fight.
I gathered all of Dominic’s stuff: his jersey that I loved to wear every Saturday and a couple of his t-shirts that I slept in. I removed his pictures from my vanity mirror. I took off the ring that he bought me for my birthday. I needed to remove everything that tied me to him.
I heard a knock on the door and then yelling in the hallway. I thought everyone had left but they had not. They must have been waiting in the lounge, watching TV.
I looked at the door as it opened and Dominic walked in. He had a black eye, split lip and a gash across the bridge of his nose. I felt certain that his nose was also broken. Blood covered his shirt.
“Baby…”
“Don’t baby me!” I seethed through my teeth.
“I can expl…”
“No, no you fucking can’t,” I said. “There is nothing to explain. What’s done is done, Dominic.”
“She’s lying, Kenz. She can’t be pregnant. We used protection every time. It’s not possible. Even if she is pregnant, it isn’t mine.”
My eyes widened. “It doesn’t matter if she is or isn’t. You had sex with her. You lied to me!”
“So I guess you’re leaving me for this asshole now?” He eyed Hunter.
“No, I told you that you could trust me. I kept my promises.”
“Give me a break. Your piece of shit brothers can’t stop you from doing everything. You’ll run to him. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Watch it, Dominic, don't bring my brothers into this. We have had our own fucked up problems all along.”
He reached for me and I could see the defeated look in his eyes. I didn’t look away from him.
He reached in his pocket, pulled out a little black box, and dropped to one knee.
Was he out of his goddamned mind?
He looked up at me, a single tear running down his cheek. Hunter cursed behind me. The chair scraped across the floor and the door slammed shut.
I scrubbed my face with my hands. “Please don’t do this.”
“Baby, I love you. I fucked up, but that will never happen again. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to take care of you. I want to start a family with you and grow old with you. You keep me grounded when I’m with you; I feel like everything in the world is right. I don’t have that feeling when I’m not with you; everything spirals out of control. MacKenzie, will you marry me?”
I started crying, so hard that I couldn’t even make out what the ring looked like. I shook my head no, and I heard him whisper, “Please Kenzie?”
“I can’t, Dominic. You broke me. You broke us. You don’t want to marry me.”
I wiped my cheeks with the sleeves of my sweatshirt and knelt down in front of him, so that we were eye to eye. “You’re not in love with me…” He started to argue but I placed my index finger to his lips to keep him quiet. “Yes, you love me but we’re not in love with each other. I don’t think we ever were.”
I dropped my finger from his lips and his head followed my hand down to my side where my hands now rested. I stared down and saw tears hit the floor. I almost felt bad for him. Almost.
I stood up and gathered the bag of his stuff. I dropped it in front of him.
“I’m so sorry I fucked this all up,” he said.
“I’m sorry you did too.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
After Dominic left, I turned the lights off and crawled back in bed. I had a few moments of peace before the door opened.
“Kenzie?” I heard a thump. Hunter must have walked into Hailey’s bed. I picked up my phone from my bed and turned it on so he could see where he was walking.