Wreck Me (Corrupt Legacy Series #2)

As I step inside the apartment, Kaden’s expression pulls taut. “Where is your damn phone?”

My hands tremble as I pluck it out of my bag. The screen is black. My battery must have died. Before Dane and I left, I sent all three of my friends a message saying I would be away with Dane over the weekend and ignored my phone. “What happened?” I ask.

“My father came here unexpectedly. He just left.”

The air whooshes out of my lungs, and my knees weaken. “Does he know I wasn’t here?”

Kaden nods, rubbing his temples while I drop in the chair.

He brings me a glass of water, and I gulp it down. “What did you say?”

“That you were in a study group.”

I flinch. The lies are piling up, closing in on me.

“We’re going to dinner with our parents.”

“My parents will be there too?”

“Yes.”

I fold my hands in my lap, and he places his hand on my shoulder.

“He knows something is off… it was in the way he looked at me. I just know, Abi.”

Pure anguish reflects in his eyes, and my head drops.

“Breaking his heart will be better than anything else,” Kaden says softly.

My lower lip wobbles. “But he… he makes me happy… I’m happy with him. I love him.”

“I know you do but—”

Anger ignites in me, a solar explosion burning everything to a crisp. “I want him in my life.”

“Don’t you think I want Celine back with every beat of my heart? I’m counting the damn days. I write the woman a love letter every day, hoping one day she can love me back again. I know loss, Abi.”

“I don’t want him to go and make a life without me… he’s my person.”

“Then time will be irrelevant.”

“If you say that crap, that ‘if we’re meant to be together, we will be,’ I might lose it. Would you accept that? Have you thought maybe Celine moved on? Has a boyfriend?”

Kaden stiffens, and I hate our fickle, fucked up human condition. Look at me, dragging him into my pain. Just to have someone I can share my agony with?

“I’m sorry.”

“Pull yourself together until dinner is over,” he says, walking away while I trudge to my bedroom.

Losing Dane and what we could have had already cemented its foundation on my chest.

Bailey peeks her head into my bedroom while I shut my sketchbook and put it on my nightstand.

“I heard you and Kaden arguing.”

She walks inside, sitting on the edge of my bed. “I want nothing more than to support you and be happy for you. But what you’re doing just to be with him is plain stupid.”

“I know. I can’t stop it either. Don’t fall in love, okay?”