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His parents heard us screaht into a large flower pot The rose bush sliced the delicate skin belowto do with them

The baby was mine

Ever since that day, Clara was ave me no choice

He fell in love with le- temper and violence

He looked at Clara as if she held the answer to all his problems

But he didn’t know

He didn’t know that one day soon she’d be gone

The day that happened, his life would be over, and ive him back his blue pill

The day Clara died, she would take both of us

It was inevitable

A story

There were good stories, bad stories, tragedies, and happily ever afters Whatever Fox wanted to tell Clara, I doubted it would be fluffy unicorns and sunshine

I wanted to end this--all of it I couldn’t standin bed thinking about Fox and fighting a never-ending war of hating hie

I’d been prepared to walk I couldn’t sacrifice myself for a man who suffered h too ain

But then he saw Clara

He fell in love with Clara

He stole Clara, and she was no longer e hadn’t left since he fell so obsessively in love with her I wanted to sneak out the one to bed and leave--but when I took Clara’s hand and dragged her down the driveway, it was as if an invisible chain tethered ation or about thefor Clara, he’d proven he had a heart He proved he was a man--deep inside, and as much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn’t

Not when he doted upon my own flesh and blood; cooked her food, cut the crusts off her sandwiches, and jumped to her every demand He became human in my eyes and that made me want to hate him y I lost the will to stoke er After all, didn’t everyone deserve happiness?

Even ed their sins, wasn’t itto help him on the road to recovery?

At the cost of Clara?

No, at the cost of him It would be Fox ould suffer--not Clara She was too bold, too well loved and strong, too educated about the world to have long-term effects from Fox But him? He wouldn’t survive her

And that turnedthan ever before By letting the both of them

I didn’t seem to exist to either Fox or Clara as he picked himself off the floor and stalked toward the exit He didn’t come back to collect me, or offer his hand to Clara His body was locked down and untouchable

"Hey, wait for me" Clara shot out of my arms and trotted after him like a perfect puppy I, on the other hand, trailed after them like a zombie whose world had just collapsed

Fox led us down the corridor where the high-noon sun bea The heat warht of stairs to theanother hallway toward the back of the property before heading deeper downstairs, trading sunlight for shadows

All the stupid hope I’d had that Foxissues had been dashed into dust thanks to what happened in his office He was still the saht ain

My skin pricked with goosebumps, and I breathed shallowly I hadn’t been in this part of the house, and my limbs throbbed with adrenaline I kept an ever watchful eye on Clara, poised to grab her just in case anything rong

I want a weapon

The thought popped into my head as Fox stopped outside a raved in the wood, looking as if someone took a sharp blade and carved with no finesse, were three lines III