This is not the confident man I met, this is his shadow, a shadow he’s been fighting for years. In a sickening second, it occurs to me he might actually believe the hateful words being spewed at him.
“And your girl is fucking ugly.”
Lance turns on a dime and spits on the ground just as Mark takes a swing, and Lance leans into it, begging for the contact, for the greenlight. He counters with his right landing squarely on Mark’s jaw, taking him down with one blow.
Channah screams just as Lance charges to get to him, where he lays sprawled on the ground. In the next second, Tony has Lance in his hold, pulling him back. “I’m going to fucking end you,” Lance explodes, fighting Tony’s grasp to get to him.
“Your goddamn fists are deadly weapons!” Tony roars as he hooks Lance around the chest and manages to get him in a lock barely a foot away.
And then he’s in his face, Lance’s deadly stare fixed on Mark where he sits on the ground dazed as Tony commands his attention. “You fight him, and it’s all over! Everything we’ve worked for, over. Wake the fuck up!”
Channah looks over to me, face ashen as she kneels in front of Mark. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She hoists Mark up, and he sways to his feet before Channah wraps an arm around him. He spits out a mouthful of blood, his satisfaction with the spectacle he created unmistakable. “You’re still a fucking loser Prescott, always will be.”
Tony doesn’t budge in his hold on Lance, his back ramrod straight, his voice laced with venom as he addresses Mark. “You better get the fuck out of here, man. I assure you, you don’t want what you’re asking for.”
“Stay the fuck away from her,” Mark warns, which would be comical since he can barely stand from the weight of Lance’s blow, but it’s anything but. “You were just a means to an end,” Mark spits again, lifting Channah’s hand to showcase the obnoxious rock floating on top of it.
“I’m coming for him next, if you don’t get him out of here,” Tony barks out to Channah, who wastes no time walking him back toward the bar while he continues to mouth off.
Tony steps up to Lance, who’s seething. “If you’re going to throw everything away for that piece of shit, then you’re wasting both our fucking time. Last warning, Lance, wake the fuck up! Or I’m out.”
“Take her home,” Lance grits out, his breaths coming fast.
Tony sweeps his hand out, clear accusation in his eyes. “After you.”
Crippled by the last few seconds, I stand by helplessly as Lance clenches his fists, his eyes roaming with lividity from Mark’s retreating back to Tony.
“You go after him, your life is over,” Tony says in desperate warning.
Lance’s gaze finally drifts to mine, and in his eyes, I see the bite of humiliation. I know that look. I’ve felt what he’s feeling a hundred times over. Heart clawing its way out of my chest, I move toward Lance just as he lashes out.
“You fucking happy? Did you see what you wanted to see? Did you get what you wanted?”
“Lance—”
“It’s a damned shame you had to see what you bought into, isn’t it?”
I shake my head. “I don’t believe that. Not any of it.”
“Yeah, well, you should. Who’s the fool now?”
“D-don’t say anything else. Please.”
He levels me with his cold, dead stare. “You aren’t wanted here. Leave!”
And that’s when the levee breaks, and rage overtakes me.
“I hate you,” the words are guttural, stemming from a hurt I’ve never experienced. It burns like acid, my skin recoiling as bile climbs my throat.
“Good, take care, Harper.”
All at once, I’m broken, sick with grief. This final blow he delivered with precision, and I feel the betrayal to my core.
He moves towards his truck when I charge and begin to pound on his back. “You didn’t have to come back to New York! Why? Why did you do this to me?”
He takes my blows, his steps sure as if he’s not stomping on the remnants of what I believed about us.
He’s not this man, he can’t be this man.