Page 66 of Forbidden Forget-Me-Not

The house was silent and safe, but my father’s words echoed in my mind.

I didn’t belong anywhere anymore.

Thankfully, my phone stayed dark. No new messages or demands. But that didn’t mean Father would let this go. He would bend me to his will.

I stared at the dark television and let the truth settle in my bones. The door was closing. Not because of what I’d done. But because my father could feel control slipping through his fingers.

My eyelids grew heavy and before long I couldn’t keep them open and let them close. Titus right about one thing.

I couldn’t avoid him forever. I needed to woman up and meet the bull head-on, or I was going to get gored by the horns pointed at my back.

Chapter

Twenty

KAYLANI

The late-morning light stretched across the sand arena, bright and hot on the back of my neck. It was the kind of cloudless glare that exposed every mistake.

Atlas moved beneath me with steady, rhythmical beats of his hooves. His ears flicked back and forth, waiting for my cue. He was calm and focused, exactly what he needed to be.

I was a total disaster.

My timing was off, and he had already saved my ass twice.

“Inside leg,” my coach called from the rail. “Don’t let him fall out of the turn. Look where you’re going. Ride the line. And don’t bury him at the base.”

Adjusting, I shortened my reins slightly as we came around the corner. The course mirrored the difficulty that I would face in Florida. The triple combination. A liverpool under the oxer. A short, unforgiving distance that demanded accuracy. It was exhilarating and left no room for error.

I counted down the strides. Three, two, one.

Atlas sailed over the first vertical. I barely had to do anything for the second, and then the oxer. He was a gentleman, never stopping or playing dirty games.

His hind hooves clipped the oxer on the way down. The telltale clink as the rail rattled in the cup told me it was going to fall. In competition, four faults could be the difference between placing in the top three and nowhere.

Riding the tight rollback, I watched the rail tease me as it bounced once more before falling from the cups.

Shit.

“Kaylani, you need to ride him through the combination. That rail is on you, not Atlas,” my coach yelled.

But I already knew that. I locked onto the final two jumps and forced myself to focus.

I stayed with Atlas, eyes up, hands quiet. He launched, powerful and smooth, landing balanced on the other side, cantering five strides before sailing over the last jump.

“Easy,” I whispered, rubbing his neck. “You did great, boy.”

He broke into a trot, then a walk. I gave him the reins and let him stretch, as I took a deep breath and settled back.

Coach Ehrens walked toward me. He pulled off his white baseball cap and wiped the sweat from his brow. I undid my helmet, lifted it long enough to swipe at my damp forehead, then secured it again. Man, that sun was brutal today, and it wasn’t even noon.

“What’s going on, Kaylani? You were making mistakes out there that you normally clear in your sleep. You’re letting your head get ahead of your horse. Atlas can forgive a lot, but the Florida arena won’t.”

This was the one place my father normally couldn’t reach me. But with last night still weighting on my mind, I felt splintered. There was no room for fear here. No room for humiliation, anger, or men who thought they owned me. I needed to let it all go.

“I know…I’m sorry. Family drama,” I said honestly as I met my coach’s eyes.

“No matter what is happening in our personal lives, we cannot let it come into the ring with us.”