Read 'Til Death - Part 2 Online
Authors: Bella Jewel
'Til Death - Part 2
| 'Til Death - Part 2 |
| Bella Jewel |
| Bella Jewel Publishing (2015) |
From USA Today Bestselling Author comes the final part in the thrilling series, 'Til Death.
You know how it went for me.
You know what he did.
You know the fire he left inside my soul when he crushed me into a thousand tiny pieces.
Since Marcus, my life has been a blur of emptiness.
Since Marcus there has been nothing.
I’m alone, my Mom is dwindling and I feel nothing but emptiness. I work long, I work hard, but why? There’s no longer anything to fight for.
I know I have to face him. I know I have to go back. To fix my life, I have to break my ties to him.
Seeing Marcus again will destroy me, but it’s time to finish this.
I don’t expect the bitter, twisted emotions I’ll feel when I see him again, and when I lose everything once more, because of him, the only thing on my mind is revenge.
But how do you hurt someone you still love so deeply?
How can I still care for a monster? How can he still make me feel?
Our story is the most complicated of them all, it’s far from beautiful, it’s far from perfect, it’s just a twisted mess of emotion that neither of us knows how to fix.
But we will fix it. You’ll see.
'Til Death Pt 2
Bella Jewel
Published by Bella Jewel, 2015.
’TIL DEATH PT 2 | Copyright © 2015 Bella Jewel
CHAPTER ELEVEN | MARCUS | THEN
A
ll rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any form without prior written permission of the publisher, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.
Copyright © 2015 Bella Jewel
––––––––
’T
il Death Pt 2 is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events portrayed in this book either are from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, establishments, events, or location is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. Please do not take offence to the content, as it is FICTION.
A
massive thanks to all the blogs on my tours. You’re amazing for taking the time to share and review for me; you’ll never know how much that means to me.
A SUPER special thanks to Kylie from Give Me Books for the AMAZING work she has done for me. I freaking adore you.
A massive thanks to the gorgeous LM CREATIONS for these covers. I love them like you wouldn’t believe; you’re amazing and the BEST to work with.
A super huge thanks to JUSTIN KEETON for being gorgeous enough to nail this cover; you’re an amazing model. A mega thanks to photographer GOLDEN from FURIOUSFOTOG for creating this gorgeous piece of artwork by taking the photo of Justin.
To Lauren, my crazy, awesome editor. You do such a great job. I couldn’t do it without you. I adore you, lovely.
To my girls, Belle Aurora and Sali. For always reading and helping me create the best work I can. For always talking to me and making me smile. I love you two, my besties.
And of course, to my admin, MJ, for ALWAYS keeping my page running beautifully. I couldn’t do it without you, girly.
And, last but certainly not least, to my loyal readers. You make this real for me; never stop giving such love and passion. You make our journey so amazing.
COVER DESIGN BY LM CREATIONS
– Like her page here -
LM Creations
PHOTOGRAPH BY GOLDEN CZERMAK – FURIOUSFOTOG
– Like his page here -
Furious Fotog
MODEL – JUSTIN KEETON
– Like his page here -
Juston Keeton
This one is for all the beauties who have had their hearts destroyed by a beast. Just remember, there’s always a rainbow, even on the darkest days.
PROLOGUE
MARCUS
THEN
A
gony.
It lives deep inside me. Every ragged breath I take is consumed by that one
broken
emotion. Time does nothing. It fixes nothing. It heals
nothing.
I never expected to feel love in my life, so it came upon me like a hurricane, swooping in and tearing my world to pieces.
Now I struggle to put it back together.
There simply is no glue strong enough to hold me in one piece.
“Marcus?”
Voices.
They all blend into a blur of nothingness. I no longer distinguish them, no longer care whom they belong to. I’m a man who ruined his own life, and there’s only one voice I want to hear. It’s also a voice I know I’ll never hear again. I destroyed a soul. I created my own nightmare. There is no forgiveness for that.
“Marcus?”
I lift my head, seeing Ulio standing in the doorway. He looks over me and shakes his head sadly. “Jesus, have you showered?”
“Why are you here?” I mutter, tilting my head back and swallowing the amber liquid in my glass. It burns, but it’s a feeling I’ve come to love. A feeling that sends fire deep into my soul until I can no longer
feel
.
“I’m here to tell you I put the money you requested in Katia’s bank account. It bounced.”
My entire body jerks and I lift my head, hating the way my heart lurches at the very mention of her name.
“What?” I rasp.
“It bounced. The account is closed.”
“What the fuck do you mean it bounced?” I roar, standing and swiping all the items off my desk. They crash onto the floor around me, my glass joining them. It creates a wet patch on the floor before soaking through the papers scattered around it. I don’t care. It could all burn and it wouldn’t matter.
“It means she closed her accounts. She’s gone. She’s packed up her mother, her life, and she’s gone.”
“Then find her!” I bellow.
“What for?” he barks. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
My fists clench and unclench.
He’s right. I know he’s fucking right. I said those things to her that day, those horrible fuckin’ things to make her leave and never come back. I set her free. I gave her a chance at life without me. Now . . .
fucking now
. . . it hurts so fucking bad I can’t get it out. Desperation has become my new best friend.
“She’s got nothing,” I rasp. “Do you fucking understand? Nothing. Putting that money in her bank account was a way of making sure she lived easily after what . . .”
“What you did? After you fucked her life?”
I shoot him a glare so deadly he flinches.
He narrows his eyes, dropping his voice into a gentle yet low hiss. “You made choices here, Marcus. You fucked up. She’s gone. There’s nothing more you can do. Move on.”
“Find her,” I mutter. “I need to know she’s okay.”
“No.”
I jerk, and growl, “Excuse me?”
“I said,
no
. I’m done. It’s been a month. She’s gone. She’s not coming back. You need to pick yourself up and move on. It’s what you wanted. It’s why you sent her away, hating you. If you don’t, I’ll find someone else to work with.”
“Is that a threat?”
He turns, walking to the door. “No, it’s a fucking promise. Pull yourself together.”
Pull myself together.
How am I supposed to pull myself together when my glue is fucking gone?
~*~*~*~
THEN
T
here is no worse feeling in the world than pain. Not pain from a wound, or an injury, but pain from having your heart broken. Pain is something you can’t describe until it delves into your soul and imbeds itself. You think you understand, you even watch others go through it, wondering at times why the hell they can’t just ‘get over it’.
But until you’ve been there, you’ll never understand pain.
Never
.
Take your worst nightmare and multiply it by a hundred. You know that feeling that crushes your chest, taking your breath away? Double it. What about when your skin crawls, and every one of your limbs is numb, beyond shaking? Triple it. Then there’s your heart. Irreparable. Broken. Ruined. Damaged.
Shattered.
That’s what happened to my heart the day Marcus Tandem broke it. I could say that was where it ended, but it didn’t. I’m still bitter; I swim in hurt until it clouds my mind, and the person I was becomes a distant memory. She is no longer. There is nothing but a gaping, aching hole in my chest. He broke me. He took my life in his hands and he wrung it until it bled onto the ground, leaving nothing but an empty shell.
My life will never be the same again, and it’s him who will pay for that.
One day.
One day, when I find a way to breathe again.
KATIA
“O
rder up!”
I drag my feet, my worn shoes scraping across the bland wooden floor. I glance at the customers that pass me, their eyes no more than empty sockets in my broken mind. They mean nothing to me. I don’t see anything, feel anything,
hear
anything. My soul is a bottomless pit. My body moves only because it has to.
Time heals nothing.
I’m as bitter as the day I was when I walked out on the man I thought I loved.
He never chased me.
He never called.
He never divorced me.
He just let me go.
That almost makes me angrier than the fact that I fell in love with a man who was nothing more than a cold-hearted monster, out to keep his business. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what your past is—you make a choice to completely destroy a human being for your own satisfaction, your soul will go to the depths of the earth and deeper, and you, my friend, will
burn
.
“I’m coming,” I call out mindlessly.
I lift the tray from the counter and collect glasses as I head to the kitchen to fetch more orders. You’d think I could get a better job, but when you move to a town where nobody knows you and you’re forced to start again, your qualifications mean shit. Especially when your old boss has nothing but bad things to say about you; Robert that is. To say he holds a grudge would be an understatement.