Chapter 339
Chapter 339
I jump awake at the sound of the alarm clock, gritting my teeth and hating that thing. But it’s silenced almost immediately and I raise my hand to rub at my eyes, feeling cramped and horrible and terribly sad after my night alone in this stupid chair.
But as I start to come awake I notice that there’s a blanket laid across me- my favorite thick, velvety red throw blanket that I definitely hadn’t spread over myself before I fell asleep.
Realizing what must have happened, I turn to peek around the corner of the chair and see Kent on the edge of his bed, one foot on the ground and the other leg bent in front of him as he stares down at the clock in his hands, unmoving.
I watch him for a minute, taking in the hunch of his shoulders, the way his head hangs.
And part of me wants to feel victorious about it, but the only thing I actually feel is a great deal of sadness to see him looking so terribly unhappy. But as he starts to move, I pull my face back, not wanting…I don’t know.
To face him? To let him win? To be the first one to reach out and apologize?
Because what he said to me last night was incredibly shitty. And I haven’t forgiven him for it. And I don’t want to be comforting him if he can’t even muster up the energy to apologize.
Chapter 339
I can be just as stubborn as he can, after all.
So I curl back up in the chair, pressing my eyes shut and pretending I slept through the alarm. Even though that’s at impossibility.
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I hear Kent place the alarm clock back on his side table, and then I hear his soft footsteps come over to my chair, but I do my best to stay perfectly still, pretending to be asleep. If he wants to talk to me, he can damn well wake me up.
Kent pauses next to me, and I can hear him inhale a deep breath and then sigh it out.
And then, to my shock, I hear him walk away.
My
y eyes flash open and I peek around the chair again, watching him disappear into his closet, getting ready for the day. And he doesn’t even look my way again as he changes into his suit and then heads through the door to his office.
And, as I watch him leave me alone again without a word, my heart sinks. And I really start to worry.
Have I…have I lost him?
Is this seriously the end of this?
I uncurl myself from my horrible little bed, not bothering to neatly fold the blanket the way I know Kent would prefer and instead leaving it in a heap on the chair. Then I head through
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the secret door and mope through the passage, my eyes on my feet, feeling terrible and lonely and worried.
Worried that I’ve lost him. Worried that we’re all going to die.
I sigh as I come through the wardrobe into my room, glancing at my bed to see that Daniel is still, predictably, asleep. But there could be one bright light on my horizon…
I head directly for my desk, pulling open the top drawer and grabbing my phone, flicking the screen on with my thumb.
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And my jaw drops again when I see that…
That Ivan hasn’t responded. Not a single word.
And then I sink down into my desk chair, completely
overwhelmed, burying my face in my palm and working hard to take deep breaths.
Seriously?
Nothing?
Nothing from Kent? Nothing from Ivan? Nothing from either of them?
Have I seriously lost both of my boyfriends in a forty–eight–hour period?
And, as tears start to stream down my face, I make myself stand up and go into my bathroom where I turn on the water for a very
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hot shower. Then, after I strip off my clothes, I sit down in the middle of the tiled floor, right above the drain, right where the water can pound against my back as I cry my eyes out.