CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHLOE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHLOE
NOW
There are three things I’m sure of as I stare at the man who may as well be a stranger.
The first is that I need to get out of here before Damon inevitably shows up, because while I have a chance at appealing to Ronan, I don’t with his brother.
The second is that whatever he’s been told is wildly different from what actually happened, and that’s likely by design. Salvatore didn’t want him looking for me, and that’s exactly what would have happened if he’d told the truth.
And third is that despite all the years we’ve spent apart, I’m desperate to comfort him, which can absolutely not happen under any circumstances.
The only person I’ve spoken about the baby with in recent years is my therapist, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. It’s like tearing my heart open all over again, forcing myself to relive the worst days of my existence.
But this is worse. So much fucking worse.
“Why didn’t you ever reach out to tell me you were okay?” His voice sounds as broken as my heart, but I refuse to allow myself to be fooled by a Lombardi man ever again, no matter how much love we once had for each other.
A scoff tears from my throat before I can swallow it, because that might be the dumbest question he’s ever asked.
“Why didn’t I, a terrified, grieving eighteen-year-old who barely escaped being tortured to death by your father, ever contact someone I couldn’t be confident wasn’t part of betraying me?
Yeah, I wonder.” Sarcasm drips from every word.
“How could you think I would be a part of that?” he snaps.
“How could I know you weren’t? I didn’t know what to believe.
I was fucking terrified. I watched your father’s men cut every single one of my dad's fingers off. I listened to his screams, listened to my mother’s cries as they did unspeakable things to her.
I didn’t think Damon was capable of that either, and yet he stood there and watched it happen.
He stood there and watched as they cut me, hit me, assaulted me.
” I’m screaming now, unable to stop myself from falling back to that place, to the place I still see every time I close my eyes.
Hot angry tears fall against my cheeks as violent sobs tear from my chest.
As if his very presence isn’t enough of a reminder of everything I lost, now he’s making me relive it?
“You may have lost me, Ronan, but I lost everything. So don’t you dare come in here and make assumptions based on the lies you were told by the men who stole everything I’ve ever loved from me.”
My chest burns with each word that falls from my lips, a pain I almost forgot was possible beating through every nerve in my body.
I need to get out of here.
I need to get as far from the man in front of me as I can, if not to stop him from taking me, but to stop myself from having to relive the worst moments of my life over and over.
Ronan still stands between me and the door, but his eyes are glazed, his mind processing everything I’ve just told him, uncovering the lies he’s been told by those he trusts most.
If I can just get to the door, I can run.
Dragging in a stuttering breath, I map out every step I need to take to get out of here as quickly as possible, factoring in the time it will take to unlock the door and slip out into the hallway.
With one last look at the man I once loved, I duck around him, staying just out of arm’s reach with each step I take.
I almost allow myself to feel relieved when my fingers fumble with the lock, but I know better than that. I know better than to celebrate an escape too early, and this time is no exception.
A hard body presses to my back, tearing a startled scream from my chest. Even though I expected him to chase me, the feel of him against me is too familiar, and every second he touches me hurts more than the last.
“You think you can just drop that on me and run?” he murmurs against the shell of my ear, sending a shiver through my body.
It doesn’t seem to matter that my mind knows the consequences of allowing him to touch me, my body still remembers how good we were together. Even as we found our way together, learning our own bodies as we learned each other’s, it was always fireworks.
“Get off me,” I grind out, forcing strength into each word.
“No.”
“Ronan,” I growl.
“I said no, Chloe. You can’t just tell me everything they told me about your escape was a lie and expect me not to have questions.”
I don’t know what he thinks we have left to talk about, but I’m done. I’ve already dealt with the trauma of that night as best I can, and it’s not my responsibility to baby him through his own.
Mind made up, I drop my forehead to the door, drag in a resolved breath, and then slam my head back into his face as hard as I can.
Sharp pain shoots through the back of my skull, but the second he steps back, I’m out the door, not giving him another second to corner me.
I sprint down the hallway, my body screaming with every step I take, but I don’t stop. Frantic energy beats in my chest as my feet carry me back the way I came.
Once I’ve turned the second corner, I force myself to look back, to check if he’s following me, but there’s no one aside from a handful of confused nurses standing by their station.
As I turn to look back where I’m going, I slam straight into a hard chest, which only makes the tears falling against my chest come harder.
Why can’t just one thing work for me today?
Or ever, really.
The last ten years have been one misstep after another, and I’m starting to wonder if I should just let the Lombardis put me out of my misery.
Arms wrap around me, holding me steady as I sob uncontrollably, but it’s not until they speak I realize I’m safe.
“I’ve got you, Siren. You’re okay now,” Ryker whispers into my hair.
And for some reason I believe every word he says, even knowing it’s probably going to destroy me.