Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
The drive was over too quickly.
I still hadn’t been able to sort all the things I wanted to say to Ocean before the SUV stopped in front of a familiar brown building.
Yes, I love you.
No, I don’t want you to kill Hunter.
Yes, I wish it could be different and that I could marry you, have your children, and live happily ever after.
Now that some of my anger had faded, I was thinking so much more clearly, but I feared it was too late to turn back. I also didn’t want to. I needed to see Hunter. I needed to talk to her and tell her everything that happened. If this was the only way to do it and keep her safe, so be it.
Ocean would just have to understand.
And hopefully, one day, forgive me for leaving him.
After staring out the window at my building, I turned to Ocean to find him watching me. “I—” He held something out to me, and I looked down to see him holding my phone. I managed to steady my hand as I accepted it from him, but I couldn’t stop a lone tear from falling. “Thank you.”
“Have a nice life, Coby.”
I flinched at the coldness of his dismissal, but he thankfully had already turned his head to stare out the window, so I slowly climbed out of the Denali with my heart in my throat. I was too busy fighting back tears to hear the car door open and slam shut, or the footsteps quickly approaching from behind, until my arm was caught in a tight hold and I was turned around.
I barely got a chance to glimpse his face before Ocean was coaxing me into a drugging kiss with my face caged between his hands. I would remember it for as long as I lived. My tears fell freely now, pouring into my mouth and his, but he just kept kissing me long past us both needing air.
Ocean kissed me until we were forced to stop or die.
I think I would rather die.
“Go,” he begged me. “Go now before I change my mind.”
Change it! I wanted to scream at him. I may have been his weakness, but mine was Hunter. It always has been. I couldn’t turn back now, even if it meant I would never be happy or fall in love again.
Ocean had my heart, but Hunter was my soulmate. Right now, my soul was dying. I couldn’t even be whole for Ocean without her, so I pulled away from him and turned to walk down the path to the walk-up apartment building. It was nothing special, but it was the home I shared with Hunter. That made it everything.
Every step felt as if I was being torn in two. I wanted to turn back, and I wanted to keep moving forward.
“Coby,” Ocean called out to me. I spun around to see a plea in his eyes that made my stomach ache so bad that I unconsciously pressed my hand to it. His gaze dropped to follow my movement, and then he seemed to collect himself before shaking off whatever it was he was about to say. “If you’re pregnant…” He paused to swallow, the knot in his throat bobbing. “I want you to come straight to me, do you understand? It doesn’t matter what we are or aren’t to each other. I’ll take care of you and my baby.” My eyes widened because I hadn’t even thought of the possibility that I could be pregnant right at this moment. And still, he was letting me walk away with his child because he thought it was what I wanted. “Coby,” he urged when too long passed without a response.
“I understand.”
Ocean didn’t leave right away. His eyes roved all over me like he knew this would probably be the last time we saw each other. And then he slowly backed away so that he could drink me in a little longer. I still didn’t move when he reached the Denali and climbed inside. Not even when it drove off slowly, and I was stuck staring at the red taillights until it disappeared around a corner.
It wasn’t a ploy.
Ocean had let me go.
I glanced up at the sky to see if pigs were flying because it seemed more believable.
A part of me that I should have probably listened to still didn’t want to believe it. The other half of me that still belonged to Hunter brushed aside my paranoia and raced up the stairs to our apartment while my heart pounded excitedly.
I could barely breathe by the time I reached my door, but that didn’t stop the grin from tugging at my lips at the sight of our door with our names decorating the front. Pale pink letters and the sun for Hunter, dark pink letters and the moon for me. Yin and Yang. Luckily, I still had my key tucked inside my clutch, so I unlocked the door and stepped inside.