Page 11 of Delirium
“One hundred percent sure, Birdy.” He grinned. “I’m going back tonight to extract her, but I needed to check with you,” he murmured and leaned over the table. “Where should I bring her?”
“I want to see her,” I murmured. “But now isn’t the best time to bring her to the Club.”
I hated it. I hated that I wouldn’t be able to see her as soon as she came back. I wouldn’t be able to hug her, to show her how much I missed her.
“I do have a house in Seattle,” he said. “I could go there with her.”
“You think it’s a good idea for you to go there alone with her?”
“I was kinda hoping you would come as well.”
I pulled back. “What?”
I couldn’t go with him. Could I? Should I go?
“You don’t seem happy, Phee,” Kieran murmured. “Your eyes are sad. Your cheeks are hollow, and you don’t look like a woman who’s happy. And you’re pregnant.”
“I can’t leave,” I whispered.
“There’s nothing you can’t do, Phee.” He grabbed my hand over the table. “If you want to leave, just say the word, and I’ll help you. I would do anything to wipe away that sadness from your face.”
He was right. I was sad, eaten by the sorrow and pain of what I was going through, but I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to succumb to this void spreading through my body, yet it was getting harder and harder to resist.
Especially today when it was supposed to be one of the happiest days for me until I saw him sitting with her.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Kieran.” I hiccupped, keeping the tears at bay. “This isn’t me. This weak, pathetic person who stays just because she keeps hoping that there’s something still there. I keep hoping and hoping and hoping, but he keeps shattering it every single day.”
“You don’t have to stay there, Ophelia,” he repeated, tightening his hold on me. “You have us. You have Cillian, Tristan, and me. We might not have been on the best of terms before, but I like to believe that we’re something akin to a family. We’re the oldest friends, and if Storm doesn’t understand what he has with you, if he isn’t choosing you over everything else, then he doesn’t deserve you.”
And there it was, the reason why we were in this situation. Storm couldn’t choose me, and I couldn’t let go, even though I knew that there was no hope.
“I’m not saying this to try and persuade you to run away or to never talk to him again. I’m saying this to show you that you have options, Birdy. You always have options, and you shouldn’t be someone’s prisoner. Not like this, darling.”
“I know.” I nodded. “I know I have options, but I also don’t want to separate us even further. He’s doing God knows what right now, and I know he cares, but he isn’t showing it. I hate these stupid hormones, Kieran,” I cried out. “I’m not a crier. You know I’m not a crier, but I can’t stop fucking crying.”
The avalanche tore through me, the dam opening, letting everything I’d been keeping inside, sweeping away the walls I was trying to keep.
“I can’t keep doing this with him,” I whispered.
I couldn’t. I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t stay in the Club when he would only keep hurting me. When simply seeing him tore my soul apart.
“The house.” I looked at Kieran. “It’s in Seattle?”
He nodded, his eyes flashing with concern. “We could go there today if you want to.”
“We might have to.” I smiled. “I have a feeling he won’t take all of this well.”
“Ophelia,” Indigo said as he approached us, extending his phone toward me. “I think you should take this.”
“Is it him?” I asked, dreading even hearing his voice. Indigo simply nodded, understanding and concern etched into every line of his face.
I took the phone from him and pressed it to my ear. “Hello?” I answered, as the almighty thunder roared from the other side.
“What the fuck are you doing with Kieran Nightingale?” Storm shouted, his voice ripping through the line. “I told you, Ophelia. I told you I could take anything, but not him. God, not him.” His voice lowered. “I need you to come home.”
This motherfucking son of a bitch. “I’m going to come to the Club when I want to, Storm,” I bit out. “That’s your home, not mine.”
“Don’t fucking test me, Ophelia! I’m about to go and drag you home myself. You’re allowing him to sit with you, when you damn well know how I feel about him. You’re mine and—”
