Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
I clenched my jaw at her words. Meghan sucked in a sharp breath of air. “Alli,” I said through clenched teeth, drawing my little sister’s eyes to me, “Meghan isn’t fucking crazy, either.” She cast her eyes to her lap. “You’re getting help. You don’t have a choice this time. I don’t care if Mom and Dad are completely against it. You need it. Their fancy doctors aren’t working anymore.”
She shot her furious gaze to me again. “They’ll never agree because they’ll have to foot the bill for it,” she retorted, a smug look entering her eyes.
Julian scoffed. “Tough luck, cookie,” he told her. “Because I’m footing the bill, darlin’. You’re an adult now. Your parents no longer have a say. You’re going, and you’ll be working with Dr. Gresham. He’s the best at what he does, and he’ll help you.”
“I hate you!” she screamed at us. More tears slid down her cheeks. “I hate you both!” she wailed, slamming her fists onto her lap.
I clenched my jaw, her words basically gutting me, but I knew this was for the best. Alli needed help, and she wasn’t getting it with the doctors that Mom and Dad found for her.
It was time to try it my way, which was how Meghan got help.
* * *
✶ ✶ ✶
* * *
I stepped out of the shower, surprised to see Meghan sitting on my bed. Tears were pouring down her cheeks, and she was silently sobbing. “Meghan?” I walked out of the bathroom with my towel wrapped around my waist, quickly making my way over to her. “Sweet girl, what’s going on?” I asked, crouching in front of her and grabbing her hands in mine.
“I can’t do this, Axel.” She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t be jealous of Julian holding your sister’s hand while I’m being held by you, and I can’t rip you from your sister. I won’t do it.” Her beautiful, green eyes locked on mine as she shredded my heart to pieces. “I won’t let your sister feel what it’s like to lose someone she loves, and I can’t do this—whatever the hell it is we have.”
She ripped her hands from mine and rushed from the room before I could get a word out. “Fuck,” I snarled. She wasn’t doing this to herself. I wouldn’t fucking allow her. “Meghan!” I shouted. I quickly yanked on a pair of sweats, not even caring that my upper body wasn’t dry. I rushed after her. “Meghan!”
Julian ran out of their room. His hair was dripping wet, and a pair of boxers were slung on his hips. His eyes snapped to Meghan, and he quickly caught her in his arms when she tried to get past him. “Baby girl, what the fuck is going on?” he demanded, looking down into her teary face.
“Let me go,” she cried.
“No.” She sobbed. “Baby, talk to me. What the fuck is going on?”
“I broke up with Axel,” she told him, her voice breaking.
Julian flickered his eyes to me for a moment before he focused back on our woman in his arms, her body shaking. She was on the verge of a panic attack. He and I both could see that. “Why?”
“Julian,” I warned him, shaking my head. I didn’t want him pushing her too far.
“No,” he snapped at me. “She doesn’t get to try to play the fucking hero.” He looked back down at her as she tried drawing much-needed air into her lungs. “Why did you break up with him, Meghan?”
“Because this is wrong!” she wailed.
“Fuck that.” He knelt and lifted her against his chest. “Axel, she’s not walking the fuck away from you. It’s time to show her why she needs you just as much as she needs me.”
34
Julian
* * *
“Julian, no,” Meghan pleaded. “I’m not ready for this.”
I gently laid my girl on the bed. I didn’t know what in the hell had changed between the hospital and now, but something was wrong, and I was not letting her walk away from Axel. She needed him, and I knew she would spiral without him.
“Talk, baby girl,” I ordered. Axel stood at the foot of the bed with his hands in the pockets of his sweats. I snatched my own sweats off the end of the bed, watching her sit up and curl her knees up to her chest in a protective motion. “I need you to tell me what in the hell is going on in your mind.”
Tears slowly slid down her cheeks. “Alli needs Axel. I can’t let her feel the pain that comes with losing someone close to her.”
“But she’s not losing him,” I told her with a shrug, yanking my sweats up my legs. I arched an eyebrow at Axel once they were around my hips. “You walking away from your sister for Meghan?” He instantly shook his head. I looked back at Meghan. “See? Axel is an adult, Meghan, and he’s growing his own family outside of the one he grew up in.”