A lone, eerie police car sat glaringly in the drive to my house when I pulled up from my short trip to the store.
I’d gone without thought, needing my stupid eggs so that I didn’t break superstition. It was random, the idea that eating eggs every day first thing in the morning would somehow affect my performance, but I’d been doing it for years. Innocent in its beginnings, eating eggs was something I’d done out of convenience on the first major motion picture I’d ever been a part of. When it opened to a boom at the box office, I’d grabbed on to whatever I could as a part of the reason and ran with it.
The eggs had become a security blanket.
But now, forced to confront the scene of a police car outside and my sister home alone, I realized how stupid I’d been.
All for fucking eggs.
Camilla looked just like me. Sure, there were nuances that the trained eye would notice, but not someone looking to do me harm. Malicious intent was almost never that controlled.
I shoved open my door and left the eggs behind, running wildly toward the house while my heart tried to come right up my throat. Double the intensity of vomit, tears formed in my eyes as I forced it to stay put.
I steeled myself in the last running steps it took to clear the stairs and the front porch, and I turned the knob with violent anticipation.
I was scared to death of what I’d find on the other side of that shabby little cabin’s door, but the thought of not knowing wasn’t even a consideration.
Careening inside on a near slide and expecting the worst, I held on to the knob for support—physical help to stop my momentum and a crutch to hold me on my feet.
And there was carnage, all right.
Bloody and beaten, my heart finally made its exit and landed lifeless on the floor.
My sister. And Levi fucking Fox.
Intertwined and kissing. His back to the couch. Her hands in his hair. Their open mouths tangled and her eyes closed in pleasure. Her legs spread and open in invitation from a very opportune spot on top of his hips.
Oxygen evaporated. My breath was jagged as I fought to bring it back, and a rush of tears hit me harder than a tidal wave.
It was all so unavoidable now, the emotion. I’d ignored it for weeks, pushing it to the back of my mind and promising to confront it later. But it was here now. The hate and the lust and the very real affection I’d felt for Levi, all mutilated with a sharp allied sword.
He’d captured me. My spirit and my spine, both had been finely developed over the span of my life to ready me for him.
He was tortured, and I was the salve. I just had to dance to his lead until he could see the truth. I’d honestly believed that.
You’re a fool, Ivy.
Levi noticed me out of the corner of his eye and shoved Camilla back a foot, but the damage was already so painfully done.
My feet treaded at the ground like water, moving my body back toward the open door in an effort to stay afloat. The room was cloudy now, my eyesight long compromised by my tears, and a steady whoosh had formed in my ears.
I had to get out of there.
Moving as quickly as I could, I swiveled so that I could run straight ahead and launched myself right out the door, over the stairs of the porch, and onto the gravel drive. My toe caught, and I went down on a knee.
Fuck!
Tiny pricks and raging fire burst free, and I used the pain to stanch the flow of my emotional wound and got to my feet.
“Ivy!” Levi yelled, the sound of his feet pounding on the wood of the front porch.
I turned back, fury burning the back of my throat, leaving it raw to the sting of all my salty, swallowed tears. At the sight of him, silent pain was no longer an option. He jumped down to the driveway and charged me.
“I fucking get it!” I screamed, holding up a vehement hand to stop his approach. “The arguments, the blatant statements, the games… I should have gotten it from the beginning. You want to be rid of me!”
I heaved a breath, and he filled the tiny, quiet moment with a whisper. “Ivy.”
Camilla stood shaking and confused as she looked on from the top of the stairs, but I had absolutely nothing left in me to give her. The broken boards of our fence would have to wait to be mended, and her innocence would be recognized later.
Right now, I only had the energy for Levi.
“Well, congratulations. You got it!”
He closed his eyes, so I did the same, unwilling to torture myself with the sight of him any longer. The words would be all the visual either of us needed.
Words final and true, I bore the blow of each syllable as I spoke. After tonight, Levi and Ivy would never be a thing. And I’d have to find a way inside myself to get over what might have been.
“You’re liberated of me,” I whispered through a throat full of torturous gravel. “I…” I swallowed a thick ball of saliva and used it to wash away the grit, smoothing the edges of my message and outlining each declaration deliberately. I didn’t want him to have any room for confusion and questions—I didn’t plan to stick around to answer them.
“I’m done thinking of you when you’re nearby and when you’re not. I’m done tying myself in knots over your pain and your past. I’m done entertaining the idea that you’re something other than you are, and I’m done with this.” I jerked a wild finger back and forth between us. “This twisted thing between us—whatever it is—it’s over.”