Page 53 of Shattered Hearts
What was there to fight about? Everyone I trusted deceived me, manipulated mewith their greed and silence. I found their evil actions unpardonable. There was only one thing to do.
Cut ties.
I would leave Troy and my mob family behind and never glance back.
Though I never imagined both breakups would take place on the same day.
After Troy attacked me the first time, I severed all contact with him. I stopped all communication and avoided all our favorite spots. Then, after his attempts to lure me back with cheap gifts and empty apologies failed, his impatience morphed into baseless accusation.
There’s someone else, isn’t there?
He showed up drunk one evening, forced his way into my apartment, and tore the place apart looking for evidence to support his inebriated hypothesis. His rampage continued until he found what he was looking for, something I’d forgotten I even had.
A friendship bracelet I made years ago on a dumb school field trip. At the time, I was learning to incorporate letters in my designs. To practice, I crafted bracelets with my name, Harper’s, and the names of my few friends at school. And privately, to honor myself and the crush I couldn’t shake, I designed one with Finn’s name.
I kept the stupid thing in a box in one of my desk drawers for all those years, never to be seen again, until Troy ripped the drawers out of my desk and dumped them out on the floor. When he found the bracelet with Finn’s name, he turned on me, insistent I reveal how long I’d been seeing him behind Troy’s back, and whether I’d slept with him.
Troy didn’t believe any of my explanations and might’ve killed me if not for the gun I had stashed beneath my bed.
I threatened him.
Digging my fingernails into my palms to keep the tears at bay, I recall the words I said to him that day.I’ll kill you if you don’t leave right now. I’ll kill you if you ever come back.
I cover my mouth to mask my sobs.
After getting rid of Troy, I went straight to the Gallagher estate to tell my father I was out. The marriage was off, and all ties to my family were severed.
The last thing I did before leaving the fold was kiss Finn. His cold reaction only reinforced my decision to leave. After pushing me away, he addressed me in a flat voice and made no attempt to hide his disdain.
“I don’t want you.”
Then he turned on his heel and stalked off.
Without a doubt, it was the worst winter of my life. A winter that left me so cold inside, my heart’s been in a cryogenic deep freeze ever since.
I don’t bother to wipe away the tears streaming down my face. “I’m in deep shit.”
A distinctthwackfrom the den makes me flinch.
Lifting my head in confusion, I climb out of my tub. What the hell was that?
When I open the bathroom door, I find Finn breaking my furniture. He’s just removed two legs from my rectangular coffee table, both on the same side, creating what a reckless teenager might describe as a perfect bike ramp. Two legs stand on one end, and the tabletop itself slants down into the carpet on the other.
“What are you doing?” I regret the words as soon as they leave my mouth.
Finn’s face is demonic,to put it nicely. He looks chipper and wicked, a combination I’ve never seen on him before, as he finishes whatever it is that he’s doing.
“Good, you’re out.” He gestures toward my felled ficus named George. “Fill that up for me, would you?”
Scratch that. He’s gesturing at my gallon watering can—overturned like everything else in here—next toGeorge.
“Sure thing.” Unsure what’s happening and not eager to find out, I grab the watering can and return to my bathroom.
“Need a towel too.” Finn’s voice carries from the den. “Thin, if possible.”
A thin towel?Maybe he’s planning to gag Troy. That would make a lot of sense, if we weren’t trying to get information out of him…
In the sink, I position the can beneath the faucet and turn the water on. I stare, unblinking, at my red-eyed, puffy-faced reflection in the mirror until the water overflows onto my hands.