Page 61 of Psychotic Obsession

He nods. “You had glass in it.”

The sting is welcoming, and he watches me as I press my finger into my palm, wincing a little. The pain helps. I don’t know what with exactly, but it helps.

“I want you to leave,” I say quietly, my body shaking. A huge part of me wants him to stay, and it’s fighting with the sensible part. “Because he’s a threat,”” I say out loud.

"Aria, do you really think I'm a threat to you? I've been in love with you since we were eighteen. It's Tobias, isn't it? He's in your fucking head." Ewan runs his hand through his hair again, exasperated. I try to say no, but he cuts me off before I can. "I've neverseen you like this."

"Leave," I say sternly, reaching over to grab my phone. "Leave before I call him."

He laughs in disbelief but he doesn’t find any fo this funny, gripping the bottom of the bed frame. "I'm not scared of him. Maybe you should be," he says before pushing away, pulling on his jacket and shoes.

"At least he doesn't betray my trust," I reply spitefully, making him stop in his tracks at the bedroom door.

He looks at me over his shoulder, his jaw clenching. "I was a cocky teenager, Aria. I've apologised over and over again. And our relationship has nothing to do with you throwing your life away for a guy who is making you like this. You’re spiraling, badly, and you need help."

Silently, I watch him leave the house, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest. The door slams shut, and I walk out, noticing Ewan has brushed up the broken glass, attempted to scrub the bloodstain on the wall, and tidied up my kitchen.

I smell air freshener, and take a deep breath, closing my eyes while I try to figure out what I'm doing. "Shit," I blurt, panic striking me as I rush for my phone, unlocking it with my pin and seeing over fifty messages from Tobias.

I call him, my chest rising and falling quickly, chewing on my fingernails. He answers on the first ring, and his tone tells me he's pissed off. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm sorry, I got drunk and fell asleep," I lie, unsure how to explain the last twelve hours. The tension builds in my head as he snaps at me, each word blowing through the phone has my eyes shutting. Tobias stops eventually, and the tears are falling down my face, sniffing. "I'm sorry."

He sighs down the phone. "I was worried, I nearly booked a flight to Scotland."

I frown, pulling the phone away for a second to see the time. It must be four in the morning for him. "That's a littledramatic, Tobias. I fell asleep."

"Yeah. Well, with someone like Ewan close by, I'm allowed to worry."

I agree with him silently, nodding, my eyes falling to the glass of ice and sandwich. "I’m fine.”

“Of course you’re fine. Promise me you’ll stay away from him. He isn’t good for you.”

“I promise.”

Chapter 27

Tobias

He’s trying to split us up.

I should deal with him.

Right now, he’s taking his son to school, and I watch him, calculating how to remove him from the equation. That asshole is the reason Aria isn’t fully mine. He has a little part of her heart that should belong to me.

If he isn’t in the picture, then there’s no issue.

I did some research into who Jason’s mom is, but annoyingly, she’s not someone I can use to get Ewan away from us. I initially wanted her to seduce him, but she’s on so many drugs in a psychiatric unit, she probably forgets she has a son at all.

The girl he cheated on Aria with is happily married with children, so she's out of the picture.

I have no idea why I watched him all night. I think I wanted to know if Aria would let him touch her, and if she did, I would need to deal with him. However, my girl was vomiting all night from my special concoction I’d managed to slip into her wine bottles while he made sure she didn’t choke and die.

So, I watched.

And watched.

And waited.