Page 108 of Psychotic Obsession

"You're good for me," he responds, reaching forward and cupping my cheeks in his hands. "I don't feel that void when I'm with you. I don't feel like I need to hide who I am, which is whatI've been doing for years. Just stop fighting me, please. All we need to do is get out of here, and we can be free from all of this, be a family."

I tense my jaw, holding back tears as I see one slip down his cheek. "I deserve to be happy," I say, watching his eyes search my face with a broken frown. "You terrify me, Tobias. I can't be with someone who can flip at any given moment, especially with kids around."

He sighs, thinking for a long moment. "If I turn myself in, will you forgive me?"

My spine straightens at his seriousness, and I’m lost for words as my mouth moves but no sound comes out. "Will you give me the chance to be a good father?" he adds.

Moving my head up and down in silence, I feel my heart racing even more, his shaking hands still on my face.

"Then I'll do it."

What?

"You will?"

He nods, leaning forward to rest his forehead against mine with a tense jaw. "Promise me you won't leave me there to rot, that you'll stay by my side."

"I promise."

He sighs once more, dropping his head in defeat, keeping his hands in place. "Fucking hell."

"I'll help you. I promise I will," I tell him, tipping his chin to look at me. "Okay?"

"I'm drowning in every way possible, Aria." Tobias holds my face with such delicateness, I nearly melt at his touch, begging me with his eyes as he lowers his lips to mine. "All I want is you. I need you." I pull back before his mouth connects with mine, making his hands drop to his knees. He looks at me in confusion. "You said you'd forgive me?"

"I...I..." Standing, I stare down at him. "I'll go call the station for you."

He narrows his eyes to slits at me. "Aria?" I ignore him, walking around the couch and heading for the kitchen to grab my phone. He stops dead in the doorway, frowning at Ewan’s old phone in my hand, the background a picture of us three at the beach.

Before I can press the call button for the cops, he swipes it out of my hand, dodging me trying to take it from him while he searches its contents.

"Why are Ewan and Gabriella your only contacts?"

I freeze my movements, watching darkness take over his eyes as they flit from me to the screen, reading the messages I’ve been sending to Gabriella.

My entire body goes stiff, because I know he’s reading about me telling Gabs I kissed Ewan and that something happened. Another message that I feel happy, then a string of texts of me asking where she is and why she’s not answering.

"Tobias, please just?—"

"You cheated on me,” he spits. “You fucking cheated on me!”

No, I'm losing Tobias to the evil that haunts him, and I have no idea how to bring him back.

Tobias' fist slams against the kitchen wall over and over again, denting the surface, blood splattering around it with each hit he throws. My body flinches with each blow, my shoulders tensing.

"Fuck!" he roars, slapping the side of his face, panting as he settles his hands on the table with his head down. "They're his, aren't they?"

I tilt my head at him, backing into the corner of the room. "What?"

He slaps his palm on the table with force, making me jump as he spins on his heels, stepping until he's in my face. "He gotyou fucking pregnant, didn't he?" he yells at me with fire in his eyes, slapping the side of his face once more. "You let me think they were mine so I didn't know you were cheating on me, you fucking?—"

"Stop it!" I interrupt him, shoving at his shoulders, his rapid blinking completely out of control as he seethes through each breath. "Stop letting it overtake you!"

"Overtake me? It's you. It's always fucking you!"

I watch as he runs frantically in his own mind, his fingers raking through his hair, eyes wide as he takes deep breaths. "Tobias, try to calm down, please."

I scream as he launches the phone at my kitchen window, cracking it. "I can't calm the fuck down; don't you get that? You want him." He turns his back to me, shaking his head. "She wants him. They aren't my kids; they can't be."