ONLY YOU.
Growing up, you're taught that it's okay to love and to be in love. For some, love comes easy, for others, it doesn't.
On a teen's sixteenth birthday, a number appears on their palm, this number only belonging to one othe...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
— • —
TOM'S POV
I was not a man of the people, not like Vee insisted I was. I wasn't someone who could easily convince a person or could push them in the right direction if they were straying away. I've never been that kind of person, but I was going to give it a shot.
For Vee.
She's the only thing occupying my thoughts since Mandy was able to decode a message in the note she left behind. The fact that she had to resort to leaving a secret message behind because her boyfriend wouldn't allow her to just tell us the truth, that was enough to terrify me. Seeing the look of fear she wore as she told me that she was mad at me, I could feel my heart physically reaching out for her at that moment. To think I almost believed it was true.
And Isaac.
That prick.
What did he do to her? It wasn't like one day Vee just woke up and suddenly realized she was in a relationship with the human embodiment of garbage. And even if she did, it wouldn't be enough to instate her with so much fear that she'd hold her tongue around him, because if I knew one thing about Vee, it was that she was never afraid to speak her mind. Yet at the restaurant, it seemed like she wanted to speak as little as possible, no matter what the situation called for.
"Tom."
I was brought back to reality when Mandy nudged me, a deep frown on her lips as she made an effort to flatten my curls. Her eyes darted between my own, searching for some sort of answer to an unspoken question, seemingly finding her answer when I stared back at her. She stepped back from me with a sigh, a folder in her hands, her way of looking professional when the folder contained nothing.
"Are you ready to do this?"
It was the same question I'd been asking myself since leaving the restaurant. Was I ready to do this? Would I ever be ready to stall in front of a major CEO and risk losing Vee the most important spread in her entire career? No, of course, I'm not ready, but I'd do anything for Vee if she asked me to.
I nodded. "I'm ready."
VEE'S POV
I don't know when I started crying, but it was somewhere between stepping off the elevator and Isaac's sixth phone call that I sent to voicemail. I could see my driver was trying his hardest to not look in my direction and stay completely oblivious to the girl with puffy eyes sitting in his backseat, but it's not like I was making it easy for him. At some point my tear-filled eyes turned into low cries before evolving into sobbing, the bottom of my hands digging into my eyes in an effort to put a stop to the never-ending tears.
I just don't understand how it came to this.
How did I allow myself to get in this situation? Where I had to literally plan an escape from my boyfriend and have to worry about whether or not my mother was going to send him chasing after me.
