Page 112 of Hurt Me Not
“If you need anything?—”
“I won’t,” she said, not looking at me, instead choosing to look out the window of her room.
I turned to leave, but then I stopped when I realized what this was.
No. Not this time. She doesn’t get to push me away because she’s scared.
“You know what, Emerson?” Her head snapped back at my harsh tone. “Yes, you will. When you realize what you’ve done, you will. And when that happens, come find me, but be ready to apologize, and make it good. Because I love you, I know you love me, and I’m not giving up on you. I won’t let you throw us away just because you’re being a coward.”
With that, I left the room. I didn’t bother looking back.
I knew she was staring at me, just like I knew she would come for me.
We were… inevitable.
And that was why there was a smile on my face as I left.
Chapter 28
Emerson
Idid what I had to do.Or at least that was what I kept telling myself.
I had fucked over Pearl's life in more ways than one. People thought being in a coma meant that you were just asleep, but my mind had been working. I had dreamed, and in those dreams I'd started to realize things.
If it weren’t for me, Pearl would never have been on my father’s radar at all. He never would have come for her. She never would have had to kill him for me.
I was the one who was supposed to protect her. And I’d failed. Epically. The shame was more painful than anything that he could have done to me. It made me lash out. Hurt Pearl when I should have been pulling her closer to me.
It made me angry at myself. I couldn’t have done better.Should have.
“Since you're still technically a patient, I won't literally knock some sense into you, but what the actual fuck were you thinking?”
I looked over at Jax with a raised brow.
“What we were all thinking. That Pearl shouldn't have been involved in this.”
Jax sat back in her chair and gave me an exasperated look.
“You can't be that stupid,” she said and waited for my response, but when there was none, she leaned forward. “No, seriously, someone as smart as youcannotbe that stupid.”
I gave her a death glare, but she wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.
“This is bullshit. Let me see if I can figure this out. So you pushed Pearl away because your sorry excuse of a father almost killed her. Okay, cool. But how about the stalker? Did he come into her life because of you too? I mean, does everything revolve around you, Emerson?”
I wasn't stupid. I knew what she was doing. She was taunting me, poking me. And I wanted to tell her to fuck off and leave me alone, but Pearl’s words came back to me.
I love you, I know you love me, and I’m not giving up on you.
I did love her. And I had even finally said it. But that didn't change the fact that I fucked it up.
“I still put her in danger?—"
“Oh no, wait. One more.” Jax seemed determined to let me have it. “Let’s imagine for a second you hadn’t hired me. Let’s imagine Pearl was all alone in the apartment when her stalker came back for her. She would be dead by now. How’s that for endangering her, hm?”
“Her stalker wouldn’t have been there if not for my f?—”
“Or he could have escaped. Could have been out on parole. Could have hunted her down. Could have wanted to make her pay for her sending him to prison—you know, because crazy people tend to hold grudges and all. In any one of these scenarios, she’d be dead because youweren’tin her life.
