Chapter 5
Kimberly’s POV
I woke at midnight, stomach growling against the hollow where my body was consuming itself.
When I stumbled into the kitchen, I found Cedric there–an unexpected ghost in what had become solely my space.
He’d bought Katie a brownstone in the city. They played house there like a real couple–she cooked his favorite meals, soothed his moods, kept the light on when he worked late.
Cedric’s life had relocated. He hadn’t slept in our bed for months.
He leaned against the windows, cigarette dangling from his lips, eyes tracking me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
I kept my gaze down as I passed him, but his hand shot out, catching my wrist.
“Jesus, Kim. You’re nothing but bones,” he said softly, concern bleeding into his voice in a way that mimicked the love I once knew.
I froze, then violently twisted free. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped.
He stared at his empty hand, something flickering across his features before hardening into familiar coldness.
That’s when I saw it–a cake on the dining table, candles melting into the frosting. So that midnight call hadn’t been a dream after all.
I’d murmured something about cake in my drug–induced haze, and he’d brought one home like a trained dog.
What was this supposed to be? Some pathetic peace offering when I was counting my remaining days?
I grabbed the cake and dumped it straight into the trash. Cedric moved like lightning, backing me against the wall, one hand beside
“You fucking with me, Kimberley?” he growled, close enough that I could smell the whiskey on his breath.
I laughed right in his face. “Yeah, I’m fucking with you. What about it?”
“I mention cake and you come running like you’re still that broke college kid? God, that’s sad.”
I deliberately twisted the knife, watching his expression shutter completely.
my
head.
He crushed out his cigarette and dragged me to the bedroom, throwing me onto the mattress with enough force to knock the wind from my lungs.
Rage had transformed him into something primal as he roughly yanked at my nightgown.
Cold fear shot through me. I hammered my fists against his chest. “Get off me! You’re disgusting!”
He pinned my legs with his weight, preventing my struggle, and bit down on my neck hard enough to leave a mark. I gasped, pain bringing unwanted
tears.
“Would it fucking kill you to bend just once?” he growled against my ear, voice raw with something beyond anger. “Just once?”
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for you to meet me halfway? Years, Kim. Years.”
“You have no clue how it felt when you called about that stupid cake. Like maybe you finally-” He cut himself off. “And then you pull this shit?”
He lifted his head, eyes bloodshot and burning.
I refused to look away, blinking back tears that threatened to humanize this moment.
In the shadows, we faced off in charged silence–two people too stubborn to surrender first.
Cedric leaned closer, his lips nearly touching mine when his phone cut through the tension.
Katie,
Chapter &
He hesitated, eyes still locked on mine, then answered.
Her tearful voice carried clearly: “Cedric? Are you really with her right now? After everything between us?”
“I’m at Skyline, completely wasted, and this creep won’t leave me alone…”
“I’m scared. Please come get me?”
Cedric said nothing, his gaze never leaving mine. A cold smile formed on his lips. “Beg me,” he whispered.
“Beg me to stay, Kim, and I will.”
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
Years ago, I’d swallowed every ounce of pride and begged him: “Can we talk without tearing each other apart just once?”
“Can we stop this endless cold war?”
“Can we just… be a real couple for once?”
“Would it kill you to be gentle with me, just sometimes?”
That day, Cedric had regarded me with eyes like winter. “You don’t deserve it,” he’d said, voice flat.
Those three words had embedded themselves in my heart like shrapnel.
Now, finally, I could return them.
I grabbed his collar, each syllable deliberate: “You. Don’t. Deserve. It.”
Something flashed across his face–pain, recognition, resignation–before he laughed without humor.
He raised the phone to his ear. “I’m on my way,” he told Katie.
Without another glance in my direction, he stood and slammed the door with enough force to rattle the frames on the wall.
As his footsteps faded, I wondered if he knew our little display of mutual destruction was nothing but a waste of my precious remaining time.
Chapter 6
Kimberly’s POV
