Chapter 49
Thealina
“Lina, baby, please!”
No. No, Rafe. I scream in my mind, running the alleyways like my life depends on it. My heart definitely does.
A Wife. A fucking wife!
I run like my lungs might tear themselves apart. The alleys narrow, slick walls close in, and every step pounds against the cracked stones.
My heart splinters, aching so deep it drowns me.
“Lina!”
His frantic steps behind ignite a fiery fear deep in my gut and has me running faster. I don’t want to face him.
I want to forget him. This feeling in my chest, my soul, I never want to feel again.
The air stings my throat, but nothing compares to the hollow, breaking inside me.
My lips are dry, but I have no fucking tongue to dart out to wet them.
I want to scream, to stop, to see his wrecked face one more time but I force my legs to keep moving.
Every turn feels like a mistake. Every shadow claws at me. I don’t even know where I’m going anymore. All I know is I must keep running, even as my heart shatters, piece by piece, with every desperate step.
‘The betrayal was not his intention. Don’t run from him.’
A familiar voice sounds in my head, causing me to stumble.
Mallory’s words slow my legs to a stop. I pant, keeping my back to him. His breaths are ragged too. He’s closer, heat radiates through my clothes.
Mallory’s been right so far. I thought those words meant the betrayal from Rafe in his office, dealing with my husband.
But it was this, I’m sure. I can sense it. Her pleading words running through my veins, battering my brain, begging me to stop. To breathe.
To think.
Rafe steps closer now, his chest touches my back, and his fingers graze my knuckles hanging loosely by my sides. His panting breaths so close to my ear the hairs on the back of my neck stand, making a shiver kiss my spine. I take one step forward, putting space between us.
“Baby, please…”
My soul dies once more hearing him call me such an endearing name; like I’m his.
“I didn’t know. I… still don’t. It’s… foggy.”
Realisation punches me in the gut with a force of a thousand bulls at the top of a cliff as I freefall toward the rocky floor. I bowl over, clutching my stomach and cover my mouth as vomit and tears threaten to spill.
I did this to him.