Chapter 5

I gritted my teeth and pulled with all my strength. It took me a while, but I finally got my hand free. Then, I lost control for a moment and slapped Ryan across the face.

He stood there, frozen. His face was full of helplessness and loss.

He should have understood by now. Not everything in this world could be repaid. The pain in my leg and the life I almost lost that day could never be put onto him.

The years of indifference and disgust I endured, he would never truly understand what that felt like.

That day at the racetrack, someone deliberately pushed me into the track he was about to drive through.

And he didn't slow down, not even a little, all because the prize for that race was the last painting his unreachable love ever made.

I was a total mess, desperate and wild, and at the very last moment, I scrambled off the track like a lunatic. That was the only reason I didn't lose my life or end up paralyzed.

My life meant less to him than a painting. He chose a painting over my life, without a second thought.

Ryan's voice shook as he struggled to explain, "What I had with Grace wasn't what you think. She was..."

Grace White was his dead girlfriend, the one he never got over.

My hands were trembling. I raised them and signed, cutting him off, "I don't want to see you ever again."

I didn't need his explanations or want his apologies. All I knew was that on that track, I had to save my own life. The Hailey who loved Ryan died there. After that, Ryan and I were done.

Elena and I turned and went back inside. We shut the door and locked it. I called security to get them off the property.

Then, I went through my phone and blocked every single person from the Pierce family. Those people, all that history, none of it had anything to do with us anymore.

Outside, Ryan seemed to finally snap out of it. He started banging on the door, desperate and frantic.

His voice cracked, almost like he was crying. "Hailey, hon, come back home with me, please. I'm begging you. I've got no one but you. You you're all I've got."

He was always so willful and reckless, never once giving me the time of day. And now, he was saying things so ridiculous, so disgusting.

Elena and I sat back down at the table. The noise outside kept getting louder.

Ryan's voice went on and on, apologizing again and again. Then, Alex and Matthew started calling out "Mom" one after the other.

The commotion lasted a long time. Then, we heard the security guards. Finally, everything went quiet.

I thought I had made myself clear enough. Ryan wasn't stupid. He had to know that Elena and I would never go back, no matter what.

The people outside finally left. But a while later, through the open window, I could still hear Alex's piercing crying from downstairs. "I want my mom. I want her to come home."

Alex's voice carried on for a long time before it faded away.

I raised my wine glass and clinked it with Elena's. I signed to her, "To our new home."

Elena smiled gently, "And to our new life."

We both drank quite a bit. I was not good with alcohol. By the end, my head was spinning. Just like when we were kids, I threw a little fit and insisted on sleeping in her bed.

In the middle of the night, I groggily heard Elena on the phone. I was mostly sober by then.

I could vaguely hear Jonathan's voice on the other end. "I don't care. Come pick me up at the bar."

That tone, slurred and almost whiny, didn't sound like Jonathan at all.