Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 30560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 153(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 102(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 153(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 102(@300wpm)
Sasha could feel himself whiten as he realized what his brother was driving at.
"No one has the power to stop life from getting shitty," Dmitry said quietly. "You and I know both know that better than anyone else, after what's happened to Paige."
Sasha had a hard time breathing as he listened to his brother's words.
"Loving another person is more than a choice of leaving or staying that person, Sasha. If you choose to stay away from her for good, then you're choosing to let her fight her own battles all on her fucking own...or you can choose to stay. You can choose to fight by her side and fight for her because you love her."
DMITRY'S WORDS STAYED with him even when his brother was long gone, and by the end of the day Sasha could no longer find it in him to keep resisting. He took his phone out, and he slowly started going through the scores of unread messages Sheena had sent him since he disappeared from her life.
So...I've been trying to figure out why you think we shouldn't end up together, and I just want to know if it's because you think I might become a liability to the Devil? That's it, isn't it?
Um, hey. I just thought you should know I've started taking lessons in self-defense. It might take a while, but I promise I'll be strong enough to stay by your side, and I can be like the Devil's...minion?
I hate that I'm going to sound like I'm some obsessed stalker here, but can you call or text me when you have the time?
Please stop ghosting me. If you don't want to have anything to do with me, then just say it.
Just tell me what's going on. I don't want to believe that it's really over between us just like that.
The last message was sent a day before he had gone to the club and had his photo taken with other women. She had stopped trying to contact him after that, and the realization had Sasha tasting fear for the first time in years.
Was it already too late for him to fix things?
#17
Since basketball is the only team my university is good at, game nights are always the best time to see and be seen, and it's why I've never tried watching one...until now.
"I promise you'll have fun," Paola says.
"I'm sure I will." That's a lie, of course, but Paola has been trying to cheer me up for weeks, and I know I've been driving her crazy with my refusal to tell her why I've been acting all empty and heartbroken all this time.
The arena is already filled to the rafters when our tickets are scanned and we're cleared to enter, and both sides of the crowd are busy hyping themselves up by cheering and booing against each other nonstop.
I'm not sure how Paola's managed to score us seats that are right behind the players' bench, but one thing I do know is that this is a sure way of asking for trouble. This has always been where Tara and her friends are seated, and those girls won't take kindly to losing their "spot" to someone like me.
"Hello, Sheena."
I can feel myself paling as the Devil comes out of nowhere to take the seat next to mine. I've tried so, so hard to forget him, and I think that's why he seems so much more gorgeous than I remembered. He really is beautiful, and just looking at him makes me feel so, so stupid, to actually assume that we had something going on.
"May we talk?"
I remember how I used to love the way he sounds so courteous all the time, but all it reminds me now is how he asked me to please step out of his car, and how his face hadn't changed at all even when I know...I know he saw me already crying, and it hadn't stopped him from leaving me.
"Sheena..."
Just hearing him say my name kills me, but when I rise to my feet, he's just as quick at tugging me back, and I end up falling straight onto his lap.
Why won't Lady Luck ever side with me? Why?
I try getting up, but this only has his arms tightening around me.
"Will you let me go?" I hiss under my breath.
"Not until you hear me out," he says tautly.
"Don't you have other girls—-"
"It wasn't real," he grates out. "What you saw in the photos, me partying with other women and acting like I have a harem at my disposal...I set it all up so you'd leave me alone."
Don't cry, Sheena. Don't cry.
"I wanted to make you forget me...because I couldn't make myself forget you. That's why I never replied to your messages or answered your calls. I knew if I risked hearing your voice or seeing you just once...I'd never be able to stay away from you."