The Professor (Forbidden Encounters 1)

“Don’t talk to her like that,” my dad grumbles.

“Bryce.” I step away from dad. “It isn’t what you think. If you’d just give me a chance to explain.”

“I’ve wasted enough time on the Knight’s. I’m good, thanks,” Bryce says, nothing but hatred in his eyes. He opens the door and gives me one last look. “I can’t believe I ever loved someone like you,” he sneers with so much disdain it feels like a thick, iron nail hammers into my heart. He climbs in the car and slams the door, then peels out of the dirt driveway, flinging rocks and a cloud of sand around us.

Just like that he is gone.

Just like that, my heart stops beating.

Just like that I wish we were back in Mexico.

“But I love you,” I whisper to the ghost of him.

And just like that I’m not the woman he loves, but the Knight from the wrong side of the tracks.

Just like I knew I’d be.

Chapter Twenty

Bryce

A week later

I haven’t been to work in a week. I haven’t been able to muster up the courage because I know if I see her face, I’ll want reasons. I haven’t been able to get her off my mind. When my dad told me Abby asked him for money and to get her dad out of jail and she’d stop seeing me, I nearly fell to my knees. I couldn’t do that in front of my dad. He’d consider me weak. Maybe I am. I don’t know.

It’s the day before my birthday, a day I hate anyway because of my mom. She killed herself on my 18th birthday. I thought this year would be different. Abigale and I made plans, but I guess she never really planned to follow through with it.

I bring the bottle of jack to my lips and take a long swallow. A knock at the door sounds. I’m in my old room at my parent’s house because I haven’t been able to go back to my place. Not when the bed still smells of her and the memory of making love to her is embedded in the sheets.

I stand, sway, and manage to walk from the balcony to the door to see Diana there. She has an envelope in her hand and when she sees me, pity crosses her face. “Come on in. There is plenty left. Want some?” I ask her, holding out the bottle.

“Bryce, my god. How long are you going to allow this to go on for?”

“Until it stops hurting.”

She pushes me as she walks by. She’s wearing yoga pants and a sweatshirt, and her hair is up in a messy bun. I don’t know what she sees in my dad, but the heart wants what it wants, I guess.

“We need to talk, Bryce.” She lays the envelope in her lap, then folds her hands over it.

“Sounds like I need a drink for this,” I say, sitting down on the edge of the bed. I take another swig and Diana yanks it away from me.

“Enough with the drinking. I’m so disappointed in you, Bryce. You had a good thing and you let you father ruin it.”

“Abby ruined it by going to him.”

“Did you stop to think who told you that? You cannot be that obtuse, Bryce. You’re so much smarter than that. Do you really think Abby would have gone to your father when he is so insistent on marrying you off to the police chief’s daughter? It was him that offered her the money. It was him that offered to get her dad out of jail and when she said no, it only made him want to ruin you two more. “

I lean forward, placing my elbows on my knees. “How do you know?”

“He was in his office talking to someone on the phone and he was talking about it.”

“It wasn’t, Abby?” Of course, it wasn’t. I was just so mad when I saw her dad at the house and my anger controlled me. It was the only thing that made sense at the time.

“No, it wasn’t Abby.”

“Damn it,” I groan, thinking about all the shit I said to her last week. She must hate me. “I was such an ass to her.”

“I believe it,” Diana mumbles, clutching the envelope in her hand. “Listen, I was snooping around your father’s office. Between you and me, I’m going to file for divorce. You father…he is a very abusive man and I’m tired of him holding Holly hostage.”