House of Cards by W. J. May, Book Cover By Design, Chelsa Jillard Read Free Book Online

him here. He didn’t deserve to see her tears if he was going to do this to her.
                  “Shoot, I gotta go. I can’t miss this train.” Devon grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving hers. “I’m sorry I hurt you. It was never my intention.”
    Then don’t! Take it back! Her heart begged him, but she wouldn’t let the message shine through her eyes. If he was looking for it, she wanted to deprive him of it. He didn’t deserve it. Thoughts rushed through her mind now. If she hadn’t pushed him into letting her take him to the station, when would he have done it? Did I bring this on myself by pushing him? Or has he been meaning to do this for a while and never had the balls to just say it until now? Why now you jerk?             
    They stared at each other, neither of them speaking. The monotone voiced the final boarding call.
    “Go do y our duty and serve your country.” She winced at the hardness in her voice; it reminded her of the way her father talked. She didn’t care. “It’s all about being top with your precious Privy Council, isn’t it?” Well, I work there now too. Let’s see how long you stay at the top.
    He opened his mouth then closed it, setting it into a tight, thin line.
    Rae let out a long, slow breath, trying to release the tension still tight in her throat. Impulsively she reached out but stopped herself. She dropped her arm, turned and walked away from the guy she had thought was the most important person in her life.
    Outside of the station she ran to Julian’s car. She slammed the door shut and buried her face in her hands. Normal girls in the normal world would go call their best friend and/or mother, and sob into pints of ice cream to get over a broken heart. As far as Rae knew, girls in the tatù world did the same. Her problem was that she wasn’t quite in either world. She couldn’t tell anyone she’d just been dumped. Her best friend didn’t know, couldn’t know, that she had been dating Devon. She didn’t have a mom to wrap her arms around her and tell her everything would be okay. She had only had Devon, but now, she had no one.
    It hurt. More than any physical pain she’d ever endured. Whoever said that there was life after love, lied. They’d lied big time, and no healing tatù was going to fix it.

Chapter 5
    Denial
     
    Rae knew the five stages of grief. She had gone through the whole process with a therapy councilor when her mom and dad had died. She had been six.
    This, weirdly, felt the same. The end of their relationship felt like she was experiencing a death, of sorts. It just seemed surreal. Could she have dreamt it?
    She forced Julian’s sports car into the next gear and muttered the stages, “Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.” As a child, she had skipped the bargaining phase. She had been too young to understand the concept, so she had gone straight to accepting the loss, but it had taken years due to the horrific events. Now, she had to go through the stages all over again. It felt so unfair. “This is bull!” she yelled at the un-cooperating, grinding gearshift.
    It couldn’t be happening. This had to be a bad dream. They had barely just started. She loved him. No way he didn’t feel the same! Something had to be up. Maybe the Privy Council had found out and told him to end it. “That has to be it,” she whispered to herself. She would talk to him when he got back. Or maybe sooner.
    She glanced down for her phone. How soon was too soon? She didn’t want to appear desperate, but losing him wasn’t an option.
    A car horn honked behind her and she realized the light had turned green. She pressed the gas and gunned the car through the intersection. The clock radio said she had about thirty minutes before she had to meet Jennifer for training. Angrily she wiped the tears coursing down her cheeks. She shouldn’t be crying.
    This was her fault; her family, her curse.