After brushing her teeth, she moved into the living room and sank into the couch, her body still trembling. Gavin had stabbed her in the heart. He carefully ripped through her chest, exposing the pulsing red tissue with his lies, and no amount of sutures could close this wound. She surrendered who she was for who she thought they were going to be together. Nevertheless, none of it was real; it was all an illusion. She trusted him and thought she had decoded him. But now, the truth was simple to her. She’d been Gavin’s puppet for a night, and she had danced to the beautiful melodies he had played. However, she would never allow him to hurt her again.

Never.

Throughout the day, she ignored numerous texts from him, proclaiming how excited he was to see her tonight. At one point, he called, but she sent it straight to voicemail. Without listening to the message, she cleared it from her phone. It was obvious to her that he didn’t know he’d been caught, and all it did was sicken her further.

As her mind continued to wrap itself around everything, a subdued knock came at the door, temporarily pulling her from the nightmare Gavin’s lies had created. With dulled reflexes, she rose from the couch. Upon opening it, her heart suffered another devastating blow as her eyes met with Dillon’s. He wasn’t supposed to be back until tomorrow. She wanted to ask what he was doing there, but the words froze in her brain as the stretching silence between them enveloped the room.

His words came out soft and reluctant as he stared into her tear-soaked eyes. “Please…talk to me.”

Unable to move, she simply stared at him without a coherent thought able to pass through her lips. He tentatively lifted his arm, placing an unsteady hand on her cheek, and wiped away her tears. Her feet remained planted to the ground, but she broke out in hysterics as her body and mind fell apart under the pressure of two men. Dillon reached out to steady her, his hands gripping tight around her arms, as he pressed his forehead against hers. She stumbled back from the door, the sound of it snapping closed echoed through the apartment.

“Em, I’m so sorry, baby.” Dropping to his knees, Dillon circled his arms around her waist, pressing his face against her stomach as he, too, began to cry. Emily shook more, the ache in his voice and his crying nearly killing her. “Baby, I swear, I’m gonna go get help. I’m gonna stop drinking, Emily. God, please, I can’t lose you, baby. I can’t.”

Emily believed, without any interventions, that she was losing her mind. At one point, Dillon was the reason she was still alive, but here and now, he was one of the two reasons she felt like she wanted to die. She didn’t want to give him power through her tears, and the worst part was knowing that the man who was on his knees before her actually loved her. Gavin—on the other hand—tried, tested, and tortured her with his cruel and lying tongue, but her heart still ached for him. Her mind was firing off conflicting thoughts in every direction. There’d been a time when Dillon was picture perfect, but that had shattered, and all that was left were fractured pieces—a collage of what he’d once been in her world. As she struggled to stay afloat in the poisoned waters that the day had sunk her in, she knew she couldn’t deal with any of it.

Backing away cautiously, she looked down to him. “I can’t…I can’t talk about this right now,” she whispered, her body trembling. “You have to go, Dillon. Please. You have to leave.”

Still on his knees, he buried his face in his hands. His sobs piercing Emily’s ears sent a shiver straight down her spine. “Emily, please. I won’t make it without you. I won’t. I’ll fucking kill myself if you leave me.”

He rose to his feet, his body shaking, as he stepped toward her. He slowly lifted his hands to cup her dampened cheeks. “My God, baby, please give me another chance. Look at yourself. When I walked in, you were just as fucked up over us as I am. We need each other.”

As she grabbed onto his wrists, he leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes intense. “Let me make this good. Let me make this better. I was drunk, Emily. You know I would’ve never touched you if I wasn’t. I would’ve never, babe.”

“Plea…Please, Dillon,” she stammered, shaking her head. “You have to leave. I can’t do—”

“No, baby, please listen to me,” he cried with his forehead still pressed against hers. “I kept thinking about the first time I kissed you. I kept thinking about the first time we made love. Do you remember that? God, I’ll never take you for granted again, Emily. Please.”

She went to speak, but he wouldn’t let her. He crushed his lips to hers. She tried to back away, but he moved his hands to the nape of her neck, tears flowing from his eyes as he continued his pleas. “Do you remember what your mother told us before she died, Emily?”

Now she pulled away. Her eyes narrowed on him while her sobs became harder. She tried to catch her breath. “Don’t you dare bring her into this, Dillon. Don’t you dare.”

He stepped forward, once again placing his shaky hands over her cheeks. “She told us to take care of one another. She told us to stick through whatever uphill battles life throws at us and to never give up on our relationship. This is my battle, and you’re going to leave me like this, Emily? Let me fix it,” he whispered, sniffling. “I can fix it and make us better again. I can bring us back to where we used to be. “

She stared at him for a long moment. The tears streaming down her face felt like acid burning into her flesh. Before she could answer, the sound of keys jingling in the door ripped their gaze from one another.

Olivia walked in the apartment, the shock on her face palpable. “What the hell are you doing here?” she spat, her eyes hardening in Dillon’s direction.

Running his hands through his hair, he backed away from Emily, his voice heated. “Don’t even fuck with me right now, Olivia.”

“Let me tell you something,” she answered, sauntering over to him, her body movements and tone showing she was in no way intimidated. “If you don’t get the fuck out of my apartment right now, I’m calling the cops. And just to fuck with you further,” she hissed, ramming her finger into his chest, “I’ll make sure to stick my father’s best friend—who happens to be the district attorney—on your ass.”

Mentally depleted and her stomach twisting into knots, Emily ran into her bathroom, landing on her knees in front of the toilet. Her body viciously retched up bile as a heavy flow of tears soaked her eyes.

“You’re a fucking asshole!” Olivia screamed at Dillon, making her way into the bathroom while he followed closely behind her. She hovered over Emily, holding her hair away from her face. “Look what you do to her! Now get the hell out of here!”

“Dillon, please,” Emily managed to get out as her body continued its assault over the toilet, the acrid taste in her mouth stinging against her tongue. “I’ll call you later—just leave.”

He stepped into the bathroom, reaching to help hold Emily’s hair, but Olivia swatted his arm away. “Jesus, did you hear what she said? Leave now, Dillon!”

He scrubbed his hands over his face, stared at Olivia for a second, and with his shoulders slumped and eyes downcast, he walked out of the apartment.

The slamming of the door behind him made Emily’s body jump. Standing to her feet, she leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath. Olivia gently took her by the arm and helped her over to the sink. Turning it on, Olivia soaked a washcloth under cool water and ran it across Emily’s face as she continued to sob uncontrollably. After brushing her teeth again, Emily swung open the medicine cabinet, her hands shaking as she skimmed over several medications. She was looking for one in particular—a bottle of Valium that her doctor back in Colorado had given a prescription for after her mother died. She filled a plastic cup with water and popped a pill into her mouth, hoping it would temporarily drag her from this nightmare. She then made her way back into the living room.