Page 136 of Resisting Isaac

“Just answer the fucking question!” I’m loud and I don’t even know if I said the words in English or Spanish.

Breathing is getting more difficult by the second as the images of what he was doing there, what he could’ve done, assault my mind.

His jaw flexes then he closes his eyes. “The night you told me this was all fake. The night I got drunk and?—”

“Told me you loved me?” A high-pitched sound of disbelief escapes me.

“Yes,” he says. “But?—”

My stomach churns. “No buts. Well, maybe the ones of the strippers who sat in your lap.”

“It was only one stripper that—” He stops abruptly, likely realizing he’s heading in the completely wrong direction, and backtracks. “I was drunk. Heartbroken. Confused. You’d just told me we were nothing. That it was all pretend. I felt like a fucking idiot for throwing my heart out there at a wedding you didn’t want. I was nursing my wounds, and some girl sat down but I sent her on her way. I left alone. I came straight to you.”

“Right, straight from the strip club. Lucky me.” I laugh—sharp, humorless. “So much for honesty.”

“Elena—”

“Don’t. Don’t youElename.”

This is my out, I know it is. My chance to put the space between us to keep him safe. And it’s perfectly believable because, shocking as it is, I’m actually upset. And hurt.

It shouldn't hurt like this. It’s supposed to be fake.

But this pain is as real as anything I’ve ever experienced.

He reaches for me. I dodge the contact.

“I should’ve known,” I hiss in Spanish as I stand to leave. “Hombres como tú no cambian nunca.”

“What does that mean?” he asks.

I shoot him one last glare. “Figure it out.”

And I walk away. Out of the bar.

No looking back.

Because if I stay one second longer, I’ll break into a million pieces—right here in front of everyone.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

elena

Tears of pain and humiliation blind me as I realize I don’t have a ride. I rode here with him. To talk, he’d said. But something told me if Carly Rae or whatever the hell her name was hadn’t outed him, he might never have told me about the other night.

But then, I hadn’t exactly asked.

My stupid heart already wants to make excuses for him.

But it feels like I’m not being fair. I told him we were nothing, to go hook up with someone else.

I guess I didn’t expect him to literally run out and take me up on it. But then I knew how I’d met him. How I’d ended up pregnant by him.

I wasn’t special. Just the idiot that forgot to take her birth control and put too much faith in a condom.

Maybe this was for the best.

Once the pain subsides, I’ll tell him I overreacted, and we can be friends. Co-parent our child as amicably as possible.