Unbroken

feel my desire too. He pulls back, looking down at me with a leer, “Hell, I’ve got some time if you want to go another round.” he smirks, “If you ask real nice, I might even tie you down and let you suck me—“
    “Stop it!” I scream, shoving him away. I’m sobbing uncontrollably now, drowning in pain and humiliation. It all makes sense to me now, such terrible sense. That first night we met, in the parking lot at Jimmy’s, he taunted me, just like this.
    It was his plan all along, I realize, with sickening dread. I was only ever a game to him, a twisted fuck-you to our former love.
    He never cared, not for one moment.
    It was all a lie.
    “Aww, c’mon,” Emerson taunts, reaching for me again. “You know you want me.” He takes hold of my hoodie zipper, and starts to pull it open, but something in me finally snaps.
    “Don’t touch me!” I scream, shoving him away again. I reel back, out of the circle of his embrace—and all his treacherous lies. “Don’t you dare touch me again!”
    There’s the sound of a door slamming open, and then Daniel comes hurtling out of the house. I can barely see through my anguished tears as he plants himself between me and Emerson, one hand on my arm. “You need to get the hell out of here,” he orders Emerson with a growl.
    “Just go!” I sob, feeling utterly broken. “Please, go!”
    I wait, with some small, wretched part of me hoping that shutter in his eyes will crack, and he’ll take me in his arms again, and tell me this is all some terrible mistake. But Emerson just backs away. “My pleasure.” he spits, and walks away to his truck. The engine starts, and then he backs out, tires screeching as they skid on the dirt road.
    He’s gone. He’s left me again.
    Stupid fucking girl.
    I watch the dust fly on the dirt road in the wake of his truck and gasp for air. It takes everything I have not to sink to the ground right there in the front yard.
    “Juliet,” Daniel holds me up. “Look at me, what did he say?”
    I shake my head, pulling away. “You too. I need you to go.”
    “I’m not leaving you like this!” Daniel protests.
    I take a deep breath, and force a smile on my face. “I’m fine.” I lie to him, through a clenched jaw. “I want to be alone.”
    “Juliet…” Daniel protests. I stand firm. I have one last reserve of self-control, but it’s fading fast. I just need him to be gone now, before the grief takes me over completely.
    “Please, you’ve done more than enough.” I insist, pushing him towards the cab of the van. “Take the U-Haul, and get on the road. I’ll finish up here, and follow you to the city in a little while.”
    He wavers by the driver’s side door, and he doesn’t look convinced.
    “It’s OK,” I say again, even though everything in my body is screaming a different story. “There’s nothing here for me anymore.” I tell him, “I’m coming home, I promise. I just need a moment alone, to say goodbye.”
    Slowly, Daniel nods. “I don’t like this,” he warns me, climbing up behind the wheel.
    “I know, but you’re going to do it anyway.” I reach up on my tip-toes, and drop a small kiss on his cheek. “Thank you.”
    I close the door behind him. “Call me when you get on the road,” Daniel warns me, through the open window. “And don’t leave it too late. The storm will be here soon.”
    I nod. The winds have picked up, and the sky is completely overcast with dark grey clouds. Down by the beach, the water foams at the shore. “I’ll call. See you in the city.”
    He backs slowly out of the drive, and then is gone. I’m alone.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    I feel the tell-tale hot prickle of panic burning across my skin, and my breath comes faster in shallow gasps. I shake, desperate to keep it together, but I can’t hold it back. It’s true. It’s all so true. It took everything I have to pull myself back together after Emerson’s last betrayal. Now, all these years later, I thought I was so much stronger, but here I am, desperately crying for him all over again.
    He never really loved you.
    The panic rises. I race across the lawn and fumble with the door. My hands are shaking, and it takes me a couple of tries until I finally get the door open and stumble into the house. I hurtle blindly through to the kitchen, sweeping at the counters and ripping at my belongings until I find my purse and the tiny vial of pills.
    One, two, three are left.
    I shake them all into my palm and slip them under