Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
I’ve always been afraid of heights. Even now, just standing here, my hands shake and my palms are slick with sweat. It’s a long way downlong enough that I’d have time to regret it on the waybut it would be quick and certain. I wouldn’t wake up in a hospital somewhere. I’d never have to feel this way again. I couldn’t hurt anyone else, and I wouldn’t have to lose the only thing I have left.
I climb up onto the ledge and scream to the sky, “You win! You fucking win; are you happy? Is this what you want? Huh?” I toss my purse back onto the roof. “I hope when you find out, you don’t think I did this out of love. I want you to know I died hating you, and I’ve hated you for a long time. I hope you suffer before you die like I have. I hope it’s slow, and I hope it fucking hurts.”
I point my toes toward the ledge and take a deep breath. “I’ll just ” I pause, sniffling. “Close my eyes and count to thirty. One two three ”
But before I’m ready, I’m moving through the air. But I’m falling backward, not forward. I land flat on my back on the rooftop, the back of my head smacking into the concrete hard enough to make me see stars. The weight of the person who pulled me back is on top of me, pinning my wrists to the ground.
He followed me. He promised me he wouldn’t. Maybe I should be grateful to him for saving my life again, but I’m getting really tired of men who are excellent liars.
But when I open my eyes, and my vision clears, it isn’t Sebastian on top of me.
“That is not what I want,” Declan says. “That has never been what I wanted from you, Teagan.”
“You’re not real.”
Am I dead?
“Teagan, this is real,” he says. He takes my right hand and moves it beneath his shirt, holding my palm flat against where his heart beats in his chestover the raised scar in the shape of a ‘T.’ “Feel that? That’s real, kitten. Have you been having a hard time with that? Telling the difference between what’s real and what’s not?”
I run my fingertips over the scarsand they are scars, not angry, scabbed-over wounds the way they were the last time I saw them. Not raw and festering the way they always are in my visions.
The way I still am now.
“Declan?” I whisper.
He places a hand on my cheek, gently wiping a tear from under my eye with his thumb. “Yeah, sweetheart. It’s me.”
“Get off of me!” I shout, pushing him off of me with both hands.
“Teagan, it’s okay. It’s”
“No!” I scream, pulling myself to my feet. “No, it’s not okay! Declan you left me. How could you fucking leave me? Do you know what it did to me? And you’ve just been what? Watching, just like him? Were you laughing? Did you enjoy the fucking show? Did you enjoy watching me ruin myself?”
“No, Teagan. That’s not what I’ve been doing. If you’ll just calm down and let me talk to you ” he says, moving toward me. I back away until I’m flush against the wall.
“Unless you’re going to admit that you’re a fucking liar and that you made a fool out of me and had fun doing it, then I don’t want to hear anything you have to say! You know what? I am glad I got to see you one last time, though, so that I could tell you to your face that I fucking hate you. We all do.”
I reach for the door handle and pull it open a few inches before he slams it shut.
“Teagan, please, stop. Please?” He pins me against the door with his hands around my biceps. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you? That there hasn’t been a single minute of a single day when I wasn’t thinking about you? I love you, Teagan. I love you so much.”
I shake my head. “You’re lying.”
He reaches for me and, with a finger on my chin, turns my head to the side, inspecting the bruises on my face and neck.
“What happened to you?” he asks. “Did someone hurt you, sweetheart?”
“You left me,” I tell him. “You left me face down in the fucking dirt, and I was alone! That’s what happened. You have no fucking idea what I’ve been through because of you!”
“I told you not to look,” he says softly. “I didn’t want you to see that.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“Will you please just shut the fuck up for five minutes and let me explain?”
“You wouldn’t talk to me on the phone. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Teagan, I couldn’t,” he says. “But I heard it in your voicehow much pain you were in. I had to see you.”
“Because you get off on that, right? Women in pain? It’s the next best thing to ripping them apart and watching them bleed.”
“God damn it, Teagan!” he shouts, pushing off the door and pacing in front of me. “I should”
“What?” I laugh. “You think I’m scared of you now? After everything I’ve been through? I was ready to throw myself off the building what are you going to do to me?” I move my hair away from my chest and point to the space just above the ‘D’ carved into my skin. “Here’s a little tip I learned from Bone Saw: aim a little higher this time. That should do the trick.”
“Teagan, I wanted you to stay on the ground with your eyes closed because I wanted you alive. What do you think would have happened if you got up and ran to that plane? They would have shot you, too, and then I would have had to decide which one of you to save and which one to let die, and neither of you would have forgiven me.”
“I don’t forgive you now. Declan, you broke my heart.” I pause, blinking back tears. “You broke me. You broke our family ”
“I told you I’d never leave you. You were supposed to have faith.”
“Have faith? What does that even mean? You’re not a fucking god, Declan. You’re just an asshole.”
“Teagan ”
“You hurt me.” My lower lip quivers as tears run down my face. “So bad. I can’t forgive you this time. You’ll you’ll do it again.”
“What about Luca, hmm? Do you hate him like you hate me?” Declan asks.
I swallow hard, looking down at the ground. “No,” I tell him quietly. “No, I don’t hate Luca.”
“Do you want to see him?”
Ifollow Declan back into the hotel and down the hall to a suite on one of the upper floors. He opens the door for me, and, holding my breath, I step inside the dark room, illuminated only by the light of the television. Luca sits on the edge of the bed watching international soccer, eating nachos from a room service tray.
His hair is pulled back, and he has a beard now. He looks like he’s lost some of his muscle, too. His clothes fit much looser than they did before.
“Did you see her?” he asks, still looking at the television.
My eyes fill with tears just hearing his voice. I open my mouth, but no words come out.
It’s been so long. Will he even still want me? What if he changed his mind?
“Maybe you can talk some sense into her,” Declan says. “I’ll be back later.”
His head whips in my direction just as the door closes behind Declan.
“My angel,” Luca says. He sets the nachos on the table beside the television and leans over, picking something up from the ground on the side of the bed before pulling himself onto his feet.
It’s a cane. He shifts his weight onto it as he slowly makes his way across the room to me, his right foot barely lifting from the floor.
“Luca, you ” My lower lip begins shaking. I bite it down and choke on a sob.
“Hey, it’s okay, baby,” Luca says. “Don’t cry; I’m all right.”
I rush toward him, closing the space between us, and throw my arms around his waist, inhaling deeply.
“God, I missed you, baby,” he says, kissing the top of my head. “I love you so fucking much. Do you still love me, Teag?”
“Yes,” I cry into his chest. “Yes, I love you. I love you so much. I didn’t think I thought you were dead. And then, I thought you’d never come back for me.”
“I’m so sorry, Teagan,” he says, running his fingers through my hair. “I’m so fucking sorry, baby. That’s all I worried aboutall the timethat you’d think I was either dead or didn’t want you.”
“He left us.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.