SHE (Book #1)

Chapter 37

***Malachi***

Unhappy is an understatement of a lifetime.
Almost two weeks have passed.
Two horrendous weeks.

There are many things I question, reality and fantasy have jumbled together to make one confusing scene. I try to piece things together, but it turns out I have been left in the dark this whole time. My father lied. Tempest lied. My whole future and plans have come to a stop because I don't know where I will be going from here on.

I would originally be sulking over the fact Tempest hasn't called back, or texted back, or given me some type of signal that she is alive. I would have been upset, throwing a fit. I would have. But she is a liar. a filthy liar, but I am the fool who believed she would ever change for me or that she would ever fall for someone like me. I am the fool here.

I laugh out into the dark space of my bedroom.

The night I was sent away, the night I wasn't allowed to stay by her side at the hospital, the night I said aloud the forbidden words of confession, the night my father slapped some sense into me. Literally.

It replays in my head every time I think of her.
Every time I think about her, every time I go over to her to see if she had the courage to actually talk to me, to see if she was still alive, I would be painfully reminded.

That night, when I said I loved her when I told my father of all people that I loved Tempest, I meant it with every bone in my body. because I believed what we had was something special, something neither of us can explain. I believed her when she came light-spirited and drowned me in kisses. I believed that she felt the same. That's where I was wrong, apparently.

My father's black eye was a consequence of her choices. Tempest... she did something, something that got her into trouble. Something that is going to get us all into trouble if she ever makes a wrong move. Oh, how I hate this universe for allowing me to cross paths with her.

I know I am an interesting person, but I didn't think I was interesting enough to research. Tempest did just that. She researched me as if I was something to memorize, she looked into my background, my family, and every private file under the Stone name. She knew me before I ever knew her. All this time, I thought I was just easy to read... no. She literally read about me and spewed back at my face.

My father told me while she was toying with me, she knew a lot of things she shouldn't. Tempest got herself involved in an international matter. She knows something she shouldn't, something the Italian Mafia has been keeping extremely lowkey. Only my father knows, for reasons he wouldn't explain. I don't trust him either.

But most importantly, I don't trust her anymore. This whole time she has been putting on a show for me. Now that she is in trouble, she cuts all ties. She retreats. Because she can't continue her psychotic little games anymore.

Another stab in my heart.
Because I spoke my feelings into the universe, confessed my heart's content, and said I loved her. And now I am not so sure of anything anymore.
I want to hate her, but I cannot lie to myself. I miss her, even if it was fake. I miss her. I wonder what was real. What did she show me that was real?

I feel a sense of betrayal. I should have known when she called it all temporary. When she is always quick to dismiss us off as friends. When she always unbothered by the distance we have, when I would always have to force her to tell me how she feels to get a sense of clarity. I have been played, at a game, I was the best at.

She is a cold-hearted, venomous snake.
To think I called her an angel.

She told me she was no angel, and I thought she was playing hard to get. In a way, I am the one to blame for my own heartbreak really. I have isolated myself from this world of lies because I am exhausted. Tempest has been doing the same, by the looks of it. There was a frightening moment where I thought she might have died. Then one night, I drove by and saw her window open. She was looking up at the moon, and I thought about how beautiful she looks in the dim lighting. Pretty face, but an evil mind.