Page 253 of Unexpected Hero

Me

Sheets

Me

VR headst

Me

the deposit. everything.

Me

U know I dont want to be chaitrity. So Im pissed for that.

Me

Thats why i need time 2 think.

My eyelids are heavy. And my throat feels funny. A heavy weight presses on my chest. But I need to get this out. So I can tell him to come get me.

I type the last message.

Me

I had time 2 think. i 4give u come get me. at bar i love u. ill fight vanesa for u. love u.

But I never hit send.

My eyes close instead. So tired.

The phone slips from my hand. No, it’s taken. Or maybe I put it into someone else’s hand. Scratchy hand. Calluses. I don’t like his smell.

Everything goes dark.

Chapter 47

Creeping at the Stumbling Sea Turtle

TOMER

The last few messages came through so fast I didn’t have time to get my laptop or tablet to re-access her phone before she turned it off.

But that’s for the best. I already feel like shit for violating her privacy earlier while she was at dinner with the girls.

Still… I wish I could have looked at her as she typed out those messages.

I deserve to witness the pain on her face and the tears in her eyes.

It’s my fault she’s hurting. My fault she’s crying in a bar.

Even if I didn’t see her, I know she was. The tears made it hard to type.

She must have turned off her phone after sending that last text so I couldn’t call her. And she probably didn’t want to see my text replies either.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

After pacing my living room, I collapse back on the couch and spear my hands through my hair, pulling at the roots while my father’s grating voice slices nonstop across my mind.