Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
I sprinted towards the house, dropping to my knees in the den where Damien was leaning against the wall, his hand holding a shirt to his chest, but it didn’t seem to be helping much. Blood was rushing down his bare stomach, the shirt so soaked with blood that it wasn’t even capturing any of it anymore.
“No, no, no,” I choked out, my hands fluttering out to touch him—to help him—but I didn’t know how. I whimpered as hot tears ran down my cheeks.
He smiled at me softly, making the tears rush down my cheeks even harder. “I wanted to see you one last time,” he whispered.
“You’re going to be okay,” I sobbed. God, he had to be okay. I couldn’t lose him. Damien and I couldn’t end like this. He was my everything. We were going to have a baby together—be a family.
Damien slowly shook his head at me, a sad smile on his face as he reached out and ran his bloody fingers down my cheek. A broken wail left my lips. “They can’t save me, Hayley,” he told me softly.
“They have to,” I sobbed. “I can’t do this without you!” I cried.
“You can, and you will. You have to,” he told me, sternly, breathing becoming increasingly harder for him. Blood began to spill from his lips. “I love you, Hayley, and I love our kid, okay? Always remember that.”
He leaned his head back tiredly against the wall. “I love you, Damien. Please, please, don’t fucking leave me!” I screamed at him.
Miles gently pulled me back from Damien as paramedics rushed into the house. I screamed and thrashed, begging God—any fucking deity that could help—to save him.
Please bring him back to me.
But it was already too late. When they pronounced him dead, I collapsed in Miles’s arms, my pain-filled screams and cries the only noise in the room.
16
Miles
Two years ago, I put my best friend in the ground.
Two years ago, I had more responsibilities put on my shoulders than I really knew what to do with. It left me wondering how the fuck Damien managed to stay sane through it all.
And two years ago, Hayley took off running for the hills in the middle of the night without a note, text, or phone call to let anyone know where she was going. She didn’t show up at the funeral—only sent one single black rose with I will always love you on a note for someone else to put on his casket for her.
The girl was good at staying hidden. I didn’t know if she had ever had Damien’s kid. I didn’t know if she was even still alive, really. The woman was fucking untraceable.
Until today.
A light knock sounded on the front door as I was getting ready to head to bed, and with a muttered curse, I walked out of my bedroom to go open the door.
Everyone knew not to show up at my house uninvited unless it was a fucking emergency. I liked my solitude—preferred it actually. I hated having to deal with people, hence why I had always been silent around everyone but Damien and Hayley.
“Somebody better be fucking dying,” I snarled as I swung open my front door.
My eyes widened in shock when I saw Hayley standing on my front porch, a baby—probably a little older than one—wrapped up in a blanket in her arms. Hayley was shivering, her eyes bloodshot and tired.
Without me having to say a word to prompt her, Hayley spoke, her voice hoarse with exhaustion.
“I have nowhere else to go,” she told me as she cast her eyes down to the cement porch beneath her feet.
I was so shocked to see her standing in front of me that I just merely stepped aside, gesturing for her to come in. She stepped in past me, her eyes wandering around, taking in my home.
God, she was still as beautiful as she had been two years ago. She had lost a hell of a lot of weight, and she looked tired as fuck, but she was still the most breathtaking woman I had ever seen.
“Where in the hell have you been the last two years?” I demanded to know once we were just standing there for a good minute and I had regained my composure.
She shrugged. “I couldn’t be here,” she quietly told me as she rocked the boy in her arms when he began to make some noise, instantly quieting him. “But I just got evicted—lost my job, lost everything.” She looked up at me with pleading blue eyes—blue eyes that had always done me in. “Please don’t send me away, Miles,” she begged me, her bottom lip trembling, tears glistening in her beautiful eyes.
I sighed as I thrust a hand through my hair. “You're dumb as hell to think that I’m sending you away, Hayley,” I told her. Her shoulders sagged in relief. “When’s the last time either of you ate?” I asked her.