“I will, but your days are numbered.”
I almost start laughing, because numbered? My days are done. He’s stripped me of my dignity. I don’t even recognize myself.
Except that I can feel him. He’s coming. No matter what logic my head tells my heart, it still beats for him.
Only him.
I watch as he and Ammo enter. He’s everything, a god surrounded by mere mortals. I wanted so badly to be what he needed. I believed that I could be enough for him.
My eyes move to Ammo who drinks from a bottle of Jägermeister and strips off his wet shirt. He slings his guitar over his neck.
I back away, wanting to run, but can’t because no matter how much he hurts me, he is and always will be my soul.
He holds up a hand and takes a towel to wipe his face, then looks up, his eyes searching for me.
Everything fades.
Time stops.
Voices, music, the crowd gone.
He looks at me, and my heart, which I didn’t think could break any more, rips in two as I watch him come for me.
My throat tightens and it’s hard to breathe. I barely notice that his nose is bloody and his lip is swollen. He looks like he got hit by a truck, but I know better.
“What happened to you?” The hurt that’s been piling up seems to reflect in his eyes.
“Everything.” The crowd roars as Ammo takes the stage, and I can tell I’m losing him. I can’t share him anymore. He wasn’t mine to begin with; he was always theirs.
Rhys belongs to his fans, the nameless masses that adore and worship him.
“If this baby is yours, do you plan on being in its life?” He cocks his head as his eyes caress my face.
“All I do is make you cry.” He frowns as he reaches to touch me, but I back away. His hand drops and his eyes change.
And I know that he’s guilty of all his sins.
“I have to go.”
I nod yes, then fight myself and almost grab his hand. Almost beg him to reassure me about way too many things. Because in twenty-four hours, everything has changed.
He starts to walk to the stage, and I yell. “Yes or no?”
He looks up and his eyes mirror my pain. A knife twists deep in my heart as I wait for him to make me bleed.
“If that child is mine… Yes. I will raise it.”
I choke back the lump that seems to want to strangle me, and nod again as I watch him walk onto the stage.
The floor seems to be alive with their excitement. Only a few lead singers are great. Rhys Granger is one of them.
This is our goodbye. I allow myself this last bit of love, knowing I will never listen to him again.
“Gia.” Slowly, as if in a dream, I face my big brother. He takes one look at me and pulls me into his arms, shielding me like he always has from any pain.
But he’s too late. I’m bleeding like someone has opened a vein and I’m drowning in blood.
“This hurts,” I cry into his shirt.
“Fuck him.”
I close my eyes as Rhys’s voice ricochets around the stadium. Burrowing my head in Axel’s shirt, I finally let it out in loud, gut-wrenching tears. His arms hold me as I sob and try to talk, knowing he can’t hear me with all the noise. It doesn’t matter. I don’t even care that I can’t seem to stop. It doesn’t matter because Axel is here and I’m not alone.
“Piece of shit.” Axel strokes my hair. “I’d kill him, but by the look of things, I think you did the job for me. He can fucking wallow and slowly die in his own misery,” he snarls.
I shake my head as I gasp for air. I’ve cried so much, I’m forced to breathe through my mouth.
“I love him.”
He takes a deep breath and releases it. “You’re eighteen,” he grits out, as though trying not to lose patience. “You’ll go back to college and find someone else. Fucking Granger will be nothing but a bad memory.”
“You think he got her pregnant?” I say to the air, since I’m holding onto his T-shirt, staring blankly at all the insanity happening around us.
Axel snorts. “Of course, he did. This is his pattern, Gia. Why would you want to surround yourself with this shit? You’ll be miserable. Look at you already.” My heart squeezes. He’s right—I know he is.
“He’s my everything. You don’t understand what that means, that I’m not me without him.” I pull back so he can see the truth. The music is so loud it’s vibrating through my chest.
“He’s not good. He’s not the man for you.” I stare blankly as his words almost take me down.
“He’s good,” I yell.
Axel stares at me as if I’m lying. My mind battles my heart. Can I really live with all this? Can I let him destroy me with other women and being a father to babies that are not mine?