Page 161 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)
My cheeks heat. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but then I just… do. I’ve got to start trusting that he’s not going to run away. Warily, I admit, “I still need you.”
“You are seriously fucking beautiful, Skylar Buckley.” His gaze flicks over my head, to my parents. “Are you going home with them?”
I nod slowly. “That’s the plan.”
He smirks. “I’m here to propose a counter offer.”
“Liam,” my mother interrupts. “Sky has been through a lot. She should—”
“Decide for herself,” he says. He smiles at me. “I know you technically already live with me, but I want to make it more official.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Liam…”
He grips my hands tighter. “I know it’s a bit crazy, but I have no plans to leave Boston after I graduate. You drive me nuts sometimes, but that’s part of your charm. We bicker and fight for each other and we don’t abandon each other.”
I find myself nodding along. He’s right: we do bicker. But I’ve never met anyone as intensely focused on me. I’ve never felt such a strong magnetic pull as I do toward him. I could close my eyes and follow that urge right to him every time.
How am I supposed to handle going home? Leaving him here?
When I don’t respond immediately, he pulls away. I don’t think it’s his lack of faith in me. More like… hopelessness.
I force myself out of the wheelchair, hobbling after him. We go all the way outside, until it’s just the two of us on the sidewalk. The day is bitter cold, but the sun is out.
“Hey,” I say. “We clearly have some issues to work out.”
He scoffs. “Clearly.”
“You’re on my side,” I say to his back. I creep forward and slide my hands around him, pressing my cheek to his shoulder blade. “It was torture not seeing you. I want to be with you all the time. It’s probably unhealthy how much I want you.”
He exhales shakily and rotates in my arms. “You’re freezing.”
I shrug. “Worth it.”
He leans down, putting his forehead gently against mine. “Did you sleep okay?”
No. But at least I didn’t wake up screaming. My nightmares ran more on the quiet side.
“I don’t know what I’ll do if I have to see him again,” he says. “I’d kill him.”
I grip his biceps. “You won’t kill him. He’s…” I don’t know how to frame Liam’s dad in my mind. Everything I used to know about him has fractured, falling away to reveal the ugly truth. “You won’t kill him.”
“Move in with me,” he whispers. “Marry me.”
I blink. “Marriage?”
“Eventually. I’ll ask again with a ring, but…” He cups my jaw. “I want forever with you.”
I can’t think of a better way to spend the rest of my life.
Epilogue
LIAM
Eight Months Later
I’ve never visited anyone in prison before. Margo and Caleb both have, so they gave me last-minute advice. But I don’t think anything they said could’ve prepared me for the shock of it.
I’m buzzed into a long, narrow room. To my left are stalls with glass panels. Some of the inmates already sit waiting for their visitors, while other spots remain empty. I go all the way to the end until I find my father.