do.
Tanner and Gabe have nothing on me anymore. I think I’ve just sat on the throne and claimed my place as the cruelest son of a bitch in the world.
It makes sense, though.
Emily has always been a queen.
Long live the fucking king.
Emily
Is it possible for a day to explode? For it to just blow right up in your face until you’re left staggering, deaf and dumb?
It has to be possible because it just happened to me. Well, not just me, but Ivy as well.
I woke up in pain this morning, not just my heart, but my body as well. Ezra fucked me so hard that I can barely walk, my legs tired and shaking as I practically stumble to the bathroom to soak in the tub.
I’d already taken one the night before, but that wasn’t enough. And while allowing the heat of the water to soothe my tired muscles and ease the ache between my legs, I made the mistake of picking up my phone to search for Ivy’s newest posts.
The phone almost fell in the water when the first thing I saw was a news article proudly proclaiming the inside scoop on a millionaire playboy’s engagement.
The picture couldn’t have been clearer.
Gabriel Dane was marrying Ivy Callahan.
What in the actual fuck?
Obviously, my immediate response was to call Ivy. She didn’t pick up, so I ended that call and tried Ava. The call went to voicemail, and I sat in the tub wondering what the hell the Inferno was up to now.
Ava had warned us, though. She said for us to keep our distance, and while I’ve been ignoring those words, I thought Ivy had been slick enough to escape.
I was dead wrong.
Several hours later, I received a phone call begging for a rescue, my tires squealing loudly over the concrete as I peeled out of my driveway to pick Ivy up from Tanner’s house.
We’d hauled ass to her father’s house just to discover she’d been cut off as a result of the bullshit story Gabe had published in the paper. And by the time we reached my house, we were both beat down to shit, neither of us able to comprehend what happened.
Unfortunately, with everything Ivy was going through, I couldn’t bring myself to burden her with the truth of what is happening to me, so I lied again, pretending to be happy Ezra was coming to my house.
In truth, I was sick to my stomach.
Especially after what he did to me the night before.
And while I’m sure you’re thinking I’m an idiot for what I’m doing, what you don’t know is that it’s necessary.
Regardless of how it hurts me.
And despite how much I wish I could make it stop.
There’s more to this than Ezra understands. The pieces he gives me are vital. The trips I’ve made to his father’s. It’s all just another game being played that I can’t walk away from now, no matter how much I want.
After getting home with Ivy, all I did was take a twenty minutes shower. Yet when I stepped out...she was gone.
Just vanished.
Like I hadn’t just brought her to my house.
Like I hadn’t just saved her from Gabriel’s grasp.
Like I was losing my damn mind and had imagined all of it.
Which, at this point, is entirely possible.
Now, I’m walking down the hall to where my idiot brother is partying with his friends, my eyes burning from the cloud of pot smoke, my ears bleeding from the loud music pumping out of the room.
I shout to be heard over it.
“Have any of you seen Ivy?”
Dylan and his five buddies crack up like my question is the funniest thing in the world.
“We sold her,” the dipshit closest to me answers, “for five hundred dollars.”
The rest of them cackle harder, one jerk falling out of his chair because he’s probably too stoned and drunk to hold himself up. Meanwhile, Dylan turns to look at me with pure malice in his eyes.
“What do you mean you sold her?”
“We gave her up to Gabe, slutty sis. Fucker just left with her.”
Ignoring the name he called me - because apparently what happened with Ezra last night taught him nothing - I march back to my room to call Ivy and find out if Dylan is telling the truth.
Unfortunately, her phone rings from her purse that she left in my closet.
“Fuck...”
I try not to panic. It’s not like Gabriel will actually harm her. If anything, he’ll just drive her to a point of gouging his eyes out and running