He Hurt Me, Now He Wants Me Back novel Chapter 5

Damien Shaw

“I don’t think staring at your wedding photo continuously will bring her back to you.” Breonna says as she walks into my office.

Breonna is my adopted sister who doesn’t knock. She never has. And I should’ve known she isn’t going to this time either. Her steps are hurried, and she has a knack for speaking as she enters the room. What I didn’t know, was how she predicted that I was staring at my wedding photo.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I don’t meet her judgy gaze.

“Joke’s on you, I was focused on a spreadsheet of products and how much is selling.” I say, my gaze still on the stack of papers in front of me.

She smirks, then walks to my desk and lifts the papers up to reveal a photo of Imogene and me buried under the stack of papers.

“You were saying?” she asks, making her way across the table to sit in the chair opposite me.

I exhale sharply. It’s the only picture of Imogene I have and it’s the only picture I’ve been staring at for three years. The paper company should be commended because no matter how many times I fold and unfold the picture into my wallet, it never seems to tear or fade out.

I finally raise my head to look at Breonna. She’s wearing a blue long sleeve dress and her glossy golden hair is brushed out and tumbles over her shoulders like a waterfall. But her usually lit face is gaunt and pale, with dark circles and bags under her sunken eyes.

“You look like shit,” I say, and I don’t hide the surprise in my voice.

Breonna’s eyes sparks with a hint of humor as she smirks at me and replies, “And you look like a fucking Ken doll. Drug dealer Barbie style.”

A huff of a laugh escapes me and she leans a little on my table, “I’ve been staying up late to study. Finals are wild and I’m graduating college in three days!”

“Aww, honey!”

She’s just twenty four but she’s in her final year of college. One would say graduating college means you’ve got everything figured out. Not her, she’s already planned to take a gap year to decide what she really wants.

Isn’t gap year supposed to be before college?

“She’s back in town. I heard it from someone.” Breonna suddenly says, her expression growing serious.

She knows I know what she knows. And she knows I’ve been waiting for it all my life. I’ve made horrible mistakes in my life and one of them was treating Imogene the way I did.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Do you think she still loves you?” Breonna asks me and I feel a chill in my bone.

That was the bigger question. Would Imogene even want to see me? Maybe she doesn’t love me anymore and maybe she doesn’t want to see me but I do love and want to see her.

I’m not mistaken just like when I thought I was in love with Fiona but only to realize I loved her because she tried her best to act a lot like Imogene. She just couldn’t be her, none of the women I had affairs with could be her.

And when Imogene finally left, I realized I had lost something valuable. I had lost the woman that stood by me and made sure my dreams became reality while unending hers.

I searched for her everywhere for three years until I heard the news that she was returning to LA to open her second art gallery.