BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Five by Jenn Marlow Read Free Book Online Page A

him…for months. He had slowly been killing him, little by little, torturing him physically and emotionally—all while Derek trusted him. There was no making it better. There was no getting over it. There was nothing that I could do or say to soften the blow or make it to where Derek came out of it unscathed and unscarred.
    He’d be damaged forever in some way because of it all. I knew that, but I’d be right beside him, just as I was now. I’d see him through everything.
    “Why do you love me?” Derek asked, all of a sudden, just as our mamas and Laura had left the room to visit with Stephen.
    “Excuse me?” I asked, my brows and head raising in confusion.
    “I mean, why do you love me? It doesn’t seem like anyone else can.”
    “Stop it, Derek.” I sighed. I knew he was hurting, but I couldn’t handle the ‘pity me’ act. I knew he felt betrayed, felt like Joey never loved him. But Joey wasn’t everyone. “A lot of people love you. Your stepbrother is sick. That has nothing to do with you, or all the other people that love you.”
    “But he was there with me, through so much, and he didn’t give a damn. Not really.”
    “And he probably didn’t give a damn about anybody else either!” I shot, throwing my magazine over to the chair my mama was sitting in just moments before.
    “I know, and I’m sorry…for not believing you.”
    I sighed and closed my eyes, a tear falling down my cheek.
    “I’m sorry I was right.” And I was. I hated that I was right in this particular case. I wanted to be wrong. Hell, I never wanted to have the thought to begin with.
    “All we can do is go on from here, though,” he said with a sigh, finally able to lift his head to look at me properly.
    And he was right.
    All we could do was go from there.
    And go from there, we did…
    We went forward and moved on.
    It only took another week or so for me to reflect, unable to believe how fast he had recovered since his transfusion. I couldn’t believe how incredible he was beginning to look physically, but more than anything, I couldn’t believe how much I missed him being quiet.
    He was back to his old, cocky, feel-good, idiotic self.
    The only thing different from before—back when I hated Derek Sholts—was his playboy demeanor. At least, he better have been different in that regard.
    My eyes narrowed just before crazily muttering to myself.
    What killed me the most was that he was back at work, and not only was he back at work, but he was just as needy at work as always—if not more so.
    He constantly monopolized my time, and if he weren’t my boss and I didn’t know him before we dated, I would have sworn that he was being completely possessive.
    Yet, I did know him, and I knew that Derek Sholts sucked as a boss and as a human well before me; so ultimately it wasn’t my time as a girlfriend that he wanted to monopolize. It was me as his assistant and public relations rep. He wanted the work-me. Not the personal one.
    Indeed, he was back to normal.
    After treatments galor e and a bout of emotional struggles—I knew that he wasn’t completely over it; he never would be. However, I also knew he would be fine; and it’d hurt a little less as time went on.
    Yet, he wasn’t the only one who had gone through a bout of unexpected emotional whirlwinds. His dad had left his wife—Joey’s mother—as soon as the entire thing went down. It wasn’t just about Joey; it was about the relationship itself. He claimed that it hadn’t been healthy or good for a long time.
    And that was something that no one seemed very surprised with, especially Derek’s mother.
    Or even Fredrick, for that matter.
    “Ha!!” he jeered one evening as we unpacked Derek’s groceries and put them away. “Told you they were shit bags!”
    I could do nothing but laugh, but in her defense, she still hadn’t tried to kill anyone with rat poison.
    “So why are we unpacking Derek’s groceries? He’s not sick anymore!” I voiced, as I divided