Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cadence
Winter
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I yelled into the empty air.
Every single time I sat down to put my anger and frustrations into lyrics, it somehow turned into a Goddamn love song.
I mean, come on.
Make it make sense.
I looked down at the completed ballad, which was totally badass, but since my muse was nothing more than a selfish, cruel bastard, I felt pissed off instead of proud.
Gritting my teeth together, I tried to shake the heaviness I’d carried consistently in my gut these last few months.
I needed something.
I needed closure.
Everything with Damien seemed unfinished.
I couldn’t move on until I closed the door on him, and made it clear there would be no going back.
Yeah, that had to be it. I just need closure.
I set down my guitar and picked up my cell phone. It was 9pm, and Jade had locked herself in her room, so she was nowhere near to tell me not to do this.
I’d promised her I wouldn’t do anything rash, but I was tired of hoping that one day he’d finally pick up his phone and call.
It was that hope that was eating me alive.
Damien. It’s clear from your behavior over the last few months that you and I no longer have anything close to a friendship. So, I will pretend we had this great thing, but we both decided it wouldn’t work. Because this isn’t working for me. So have an excellent life, and don’t contact me anymore.
Boom. Send. Done.
I smiled as the message was delivered.
I already felt better.
It was about time I cut ties with him. It had been three months since our time together, and waiting for him hurt too much.
But no more.
I jumped when my phone began to vibrate in my hand and my heart raced up my throat as Damien’s name popped up on the screen.
I declined the call.
Too little too late, mother trucker.
Except he called again. With a frown, I hit the red ‘x’.
Does he not understand what don’t contact me again means?!
And when the third call came, I let it ring. Satisfied when it stayed silent for close to two full minutes.
Damien
Cadence, please. Answer my call.
“What the fuck!” I yelled. “Leave me alone!”
Jade poked her head out of her room, “Uh, you okay? All I hear is you screaming.”
“No!”
Coming out in her PJs, she sat next to me, the couch dipping under her petite size.
“Cay, what’s wrong?”
My phone buzzed again, and I practically threw it at her.
“The Fuck? Why is he calling you?” Her gaze whipped from my phone to my eyes. “What did you do?”
I raised my brows, trying my best to look innocent. “Nothing.” My voice came out a pitch higher than usual.
“Don’t lie to me. Your eyebrows only go up that high when you lie.”
Lowering my head in defeat, I unlocked my phone and showed her the message. “I can’t help it. I got mad.”
“You provoked him.”
“Ha! I wish. He would have called me weeks ago if he were so easily provoked.”
Jade lifted her hands. “You got a point there.”
Please let me explain. There is so much you don’t know.
I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner.
It’s not because I didn’t want to.
“Make it stop, Jade,” I whined.
“I think you should hear him out. Maybe something did happen. The whole thing is just really weird. And honestly…unlike him.”
“No, he doesn’t get to do this. Why is it that he is suddenly ready to talk after I sent him my moving on message? No. This is how it always is. I reach out first. If he wanted to talk to me, he should have initiated it. It’s too late now.”
We sat there for a few minutes, the buzzing from my phone as more messages and calls came in, echoed throughout the room.
“So… wanna watch a movie?”
“Omigod, yes please.”
“Okay. But turn your damn phone off.”
“Easy peasy.”
It was too late, Damien.
It was my turn to close at the music store tonight, and it was dead. No one had come through that door since just before dinner.
I checked the clock. There was still an hour before closing time, so I pulled out my guitar, sat on the stool in front of the check-out counter, and started singing the song I’d finished the night before. The one not about a certain someone.
“Surrounded by night, trapped in my memories,
The sound of your voice, stuck in my mind.
All the moments shared, the dreams set free,
You’re a lost melody I can’t seem to find.”
“I knew it. You wrote that song for me.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin as Elijah stepped through the door. “Jesus, you scared me.” I watched as he wordlessly moved toward me, his movements oddly fluid. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re playing my guitar. That proves it. You want me back.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You wrote me a song on my guitar.”
“I did not. I wrote a song for me on my guitar.”
“Cadence, you can’t tell me that’s not my guitar from college.”
“Okay, fine, it is. But it’s mine now.”
Elijah was in front of me, his knees touching mine. “That’s not how it works.”
I tried to rise, but he wouldn’t let me. “Elijah, move. You’re too close.”
“I don’t want to. I miss being near you.”
I laughed nervously, “Stop messing around.” I swung my legs to the side to stand. Finally, out of his bubble, I set the guitar on the counter and placed my hands on my hips. “What is it you need, Elijah?”
“The answer is simple. You.”
I shook my head. “We’ve been over this. I’m not coming back.”
“I made some decisions, and I don’t care anymore.”
“About what? You don’t care about what?” Impatience laced every word.
“What my family thinks. I don’t care that they think you aren’t worthy of the Powell name or that you don’t fit in with our friends, and you make us look like we have no class.
I don’t care about any of that. And I am going to stand up to my parents for you.
I will make them see that I want to be happy, and you are what makes me happy. I need you, Cadence.”
“Wow, “I deadpanned. “What a confession. I’m speechless at the heart and thought you put behind that.”
Elijah walked toward me once again. I stepped away, trying to keep space between us, but whenever I moved, he moved too. “Come on, Cadence. Let’s go back home. We can go back to how it used to be.”
“That’s the thing, Elijah. I don’t want it to go back to how it used to be. I was miserable.” My back hit the wall. I was trapped.
Elijah’s face twisted into a sneer. “You’d rather be with that other guy then?”
“Other guy? What other guy?”
“The only other one you’ve been with since me.”
Words stuck in my throat like I’d accidentally swallowed a hard candy. I was confused and thrown off guard. “How do you know that? Have you been spying on me?”
“That’s not important. What’s important right now is you and me getting back together. I’ve been waiting months for this.”
“No. Wait. You need to tell me.”
Elijah sighed, aggravated. “I can still see your location from your phone. I saw you left North Carolina and went to Cali. I had you followed there, and wasn’t I surprised when my surveillance sent me pictures of you kissing another man.”
I balked. “You… You… Invaded my privacy. That’s so fucked up. How could you do that?” I felt dirty knowing he had been following my every move since I left.
Elijah chuckled. “Honestly, I thought it would be Liam. Especially when you went to California. You two were all buddy buddy at that charity fashion show he put on that you ‘just had to go to.’ Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the singer in that band Jade loves so much. I guess I have her to thank for all this.”
“You had me followed at the fashion show, too?”
And yet, I wasn’t surprised by that. The whole night I’d felt that tingling sensation of being watched. Deep in my gut, I knew.
“I had to know what you were doing. I needed to know.”
“What I do is my business. Not yours.”
“Well, when you are being a slut and giving it up to random guys, I need to know.”
My pulse raced and my cheeks heated. “That’s it. You crossed a line. Get out.”
But instead of walking away, Elijah forced himself against me, rubbing his erection into my stomach. “If you won’t give it up to me willingly, Cadence, I’ll just take it since you give it out so freely to others. It’s not like I haven’t had you before.”
I shoved against his shoulders with all the strength I possessed, trying to push him away. His eyes dilated, glinting dangerously. He was angry, and I was afraid of what he would do.
Elijah had never been one to make empty threats.
I twisted, hoping to kick him in the balls or shins, but he shoved his legs between mine, pinning me against the wall with his body. He grabbed my wrists and threw them above my head.
I looked at him as tears welled in my eyes. “Don’t do this, Elijah. Let me go.”
“You belong to me, Cadence. I’m waiting for you to understand that.”
He pressed his lips to mine as the first tear fell. Moving both my wrists into one of his hands, he used the other to slide down my body and played with the hem of my black tee. His fingers brushed against the skin of my stomach, and I wanted to throw up.
How could he think I liked this? That I wanted him to treat me this way?
But I was no damsel in destress.
There was always a way out, and if not, I’d go down fighting.
I bit his lip as hard as I could.
“Ah!” He shouted as he pulled his face from mine. I watched as blood began to pool then drip down his chin.
“Fuck. You. Elijah.”
“I’ll make you pay for that, you stupid whore.”
“Cadence?!”
I barely had time to register Damien’s voice before Elijah growled. Damien grabbed the neck of his suit coat and yanked him away. I rubbed my wrist as Damien threw a right hook and hit Elijah in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. When Damien closed on Elijah again, I moved between them.
“Stop this!”
“Cay, how can you defend him? I saw what he was trying to do to you.”
“I’m not defending him. I’m defending myself. And I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with any of this right now. I need you both to leave.”
My body trembled, adrenaline and shock wreaking havoc on my nervous system. I needed to get them out before I crashed.
“I’m not leaving you here with him.” Damien said at the same time Elijah said, “Tell him to leave.”
“It’s pretty brave for you to show your face here,” Elijah snarled at Damien.
Damien moved to grab Elijah once more but I grabbed his arm. “Leave Elijah!”
“Cadence—” Elijah began.
“If you don’t get out of this store right now, I’m going to call the police and report you for sexual assault. The Powells have no influence here and the press will have a field day with those headlines.”
“You have no power over either of us, anymore.” Damien’s words barely registered as I watched Elijah’s gaze bounce between the two of us. His lips twisted down, but thankfully, he understood. Elijah wouldn’t do anything to tarnish the good Powell name.
Once he was out the door, Damien’s hands were on me. He cupped my cheek while his gaze took inventory of my body.
“Are you okay? Jesus, I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Damien…”
His hands moved down my neck and onto my back as he pulled me into his chest and his familiar scent enveloped me. I wanted to surrender to his comfort, collapse into his strong arms and let him hold me until the storm within quieted and my resolve to take on the world again returned.
But my heart had already been shattered into millions of pieces.
He’d already broken it.
The only person who I could count on to put those pieces back together was me.
I sniffled, quieting the sobs that racked my body. I put my palms on his broad chest and pushed him away. “Now, your turn.”
“Cay…”
“How dare you come here after how everything played out. Why come now?”
“I have to tell you what happened. I need to explain myself.”
“No, I’m done. I need to find myself and be who I want to be.
I loved every second we spent together, but all it did was make you important to me.
And now I see that I’m not important to you.
I’m not special, and that’s okay. But I can’t be your friend anymore because I’d give you the world, Damien, and that scares me. ”
I stepped back, creating space between us.
“I get it, okay? You don’t have to worry about me getting any more attached to you than I already am, because I’m pulling myself away.
I can’t compromise myself for someone who doesn’t see me.
You said it yourself. The most valuable currency we have to offer is our time.
If it’s important, we sacrifice for it, we make the time, and I’ve given you so much of mine. But I’m done. I can’t do it anymore.”
I wiped the tears from my cheeks as more came, defeating my attempts altogether.
As Damien took a step toward me, I took one back. “Cay, please. I can explain everything.”
I shook my head. “It’s too late.”
“It can’t be.”
“The worst part is, I would have handed you every piece of me. Everything. If you had only tried a little harder to catch me, you would have. But it’s a good thing you didn’t. You won’t give me any piece of you, only enough to keep me on the line.”
“Cadence. Please.”
“I need you to leave, and as I said before, don’t call me anymore.”
Damien didn’t move. He seemed frozen. Those ice blue eyes focused on me, and his red hair looked as if he’d run his hands through it over and over.
He was every bit as handsome as I remembered.
But I needed to stay strong. I needed it for me.
“Okay. Fine. You win.” He gave me one last look, pain lingering in his eyes, before walking out the door.
As the door shut behind him, my body gave out and I slid to the floor.