After making her way down the hall to Gavin’s penthouse, Emily rang the doorbell. That relaxation she had just been experiencing suddenly turned into a mixture of shock and confusion when the door swung open. With her heart pounding in her chest—its speed that of a jackhammer—her eyes transiently followed suit as they swept over the woman who had opened his door, wearing nothing but a sweater and panties.
Over her now rapid breathing and sweat-soaked body, Emily managed to get out, “Who are you?”
With the tilt of her head, Gina eyed Emily up and down. “I’m Gina. Who the hell are you?”
Somewhere in the back of Emily’s mind, she and Gavin’s conversation from the baseball game flooded her psyche.
“Besides, her name is Gina, and mine, of course, is Gavin—two Gs. I think it was an omen or something—destined to not work out.”
A writhing ball of hurt tore through Emily’s stomach when she realized who she was. Gavin made her feel like she stood a chance with him, but she really didn’t. She couldn’t compete with the greatest love of his life—the woman whom he’d loved enough to want to marry.
Without another word spoken, Emily quickly turned and headed for the elevators. She wouldn’t go in to talk to him. She couldn’t. Pride kept her feet moving and kept them moving fast.
“Hey,” Gina called out. “Are you going to answer my question or not? Who are you?”
“Apparently, I’m no one. I had the wrong address,” she answered, badly wanting to cry.
Wanting to know that she wasn’t numb.
That she was still feeling.
As it turned out, she needn’t worry that she’d lost her ability to feel because her heart was crushed like a pressed flower in a tattered book. Her body desperately tried not to let go of the contents inside her stomach. Her spirit felt defeated, broken, beaten, and torn—its assault brought on by a man whom she was naive enough to trust. Worse, she was naive enough to believe he actually loved her.
By the time the elevator completed its descent to the main floor, despite her best efforts to contain it, Emily’s stomach decided to fight back, releasing the small amount of food it held. Right there in the middle of the crowded lobby, she dropped the bag of bagels onto the floor as she dry-heaved repeatedly after throwing up. Embarrassed by her display, her brain faintly registered the sound of a woman gasping in shock. Cupping her hand over her mouth, Emily fled from the building. The icy cold air shocking through her system offered no reprieve to her sweating flesh.
As the heart of the world hummed around her with commuters walking down the packed city streets, Emily fought to gather her senses and tried to swallow her pain. However, her wounds rang loud, like the rushing winds screaming in the wintry storm around her. Clenching her purse against her chest, she found herself walking, her thoughts wholeheartedly derailed. She made her way into a diner around the corner and took a seat at a table, her hands trembling—and not by the frigid temperatures outside.
Peeling the sleet-beaded coat from her body, she ran her fingers through her wet hair, and it was then that she completely lost it. The tears flowed steadily down her cheeks as she tried to make sense of what’d just happened. She tried to make sense of her toxic, muddied perception of who Gavin made himself out to be in front of her. In her eyes, he was the master of trickery, delivering nothing but words tainted with lies and betrayal. The long road they were supposed to travel together was now riddled with pieces of her heart—pieces that he’d strategically placed there for her to trip and fall over. He was everything she wanted, and apparently, she was nothing he needed.
Nothing.
He’d shown her what she really was to him—just another void-killer in his life.
Emily didn’t know how long she sat there in that diner crying, completely uncaring of patrons whispering and staring in her direction. By the time she hailed a taxi back home, she was torn, her heart feeling as if it’d been sent straight through a grinder. Eyes blurry from tears, she made her way into her bedroom, rid herself of her soaked clothing, and changed into a T-shirt and sweatpants.
After brushing her teeth, she moved into the living room and sank into the couch, her body still trembling. Gavin had stabbed her in the heart. He carefully ripped through her chest, exposing the pulsing red tissue with his lies, and no amount of sutures could close this wound. She surrendered who she was for who she thought they were going to be together. Nevertheless, none of it was real; it was all an illusion. She trusted him and thought she had decoded him. But now, the truth was simple to her. She’d been Gavin’s puppet for a night, and she had danced to the beautiful melodies he had played. However, she would never allow him to hurt her again.
Never.
Throughout the day, she ignored numerous texts from him, proclaiming how excited he was to see her tonight. At one point, he called, but she sent it straight to voicemail. Without listening to the message, she cleared it from her phone. It was obvious to her that he didn’t know he’d been caught, and all it did was sicken her further.
As her mind continued to wrap itself around everything, a subdued knock came at the door, temporarily pulling her from the nightmare Gavin’s lies had created. With dulled reflexes, she rose from the couch. Upon opening it, her heart suffered another devastating blow as her eyes met with Dillon’s. He wasn’t supposed to be back until tomorrow. She wanted to ask what he was doing there, but the words froze in her brain as the stretching silence between them enveloped the room.
His words came out soft and reluctant as he stared into her tear-soaked eyes. “Please…talk to me.”