Read Online Delirious by Suzannah Daniels - Free Book Online Page B

one trusted me. I’d done the best I could with the precarious situation that I’d been dealt, and I’d failed miserably.
    I took a deep breath, trying to still the hot tears that threatened to seep from my eyes. Shit, shit, shit. I couldn’t cry like a freaking baby.
    I couldn’t…but I did. Once the tears started falling, I couldn’t stop them. My arms were crossed over the top of the steering wheel, and I buried my face in them. Why was life determined to keep me wallowing in misery?
    I thought of Dara’s face. My heart ached at the pain evident in her eyes, the pain that she felt as a result of my words, the pain that I’d promised myself I would protect her from. If only I’d known she was there….
    Damn, could I do nothing right?
    I leaned back and slammed my palms against the steering wheel. I couldn’t lose her. I couldn’t.
    I wiped my eyes with my forearm and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I took a moment to compose myself and dialed her number.
    I silently begged her to pick up. If only I could talk to her....
    The phone rang and rang until voicemail finally answered. I hung up and dialed again, only to get the same result. I dialed again and again until I lost count how many times I had called her, hoping against hope that she would eventually pick up and talk to me.
    Damn.
    Pissed, I tossed the phone down in the seat beside me.
    Anguish consumed me, and I wanted to rip out my own heart, so I didn’t have to feel the pain. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. How could I get rid of this feeling? I had the overwhelming urge to get out of the car and beat it until every bit of glass was broken, until every inch of surface was dented or scratched. I needed some way to release the unbearable anger and guilt that screamed in my head until my skull felt like it would crack in two.
    I didn’t think I could feel any more tortured until I realized that Dara probably felt the exact same way.
    And it was my fault.

 
    Chapter 7
     
    Dara
     
    If someone had told me that Stone wanted to cancel the wedding, I would’ve never believed it. But I’d heard it with my own ears.
    My tears blurred my vision as I tried to drive. I didn’t even know where I was going. I just knew that I had to escape, and I didn’t want to go anywhere where he would find me. When he’d tried to call me, it was so hard not to answer. I wanted to hear his voice reassure me that everything was going to be fine, that he hadn’t meant it. But I hadn’t answered because I was afraid that he would lie to me, that he would tell me exactly what I wanted to hear, that his words represented nothing more than a fanciful make-believe where the princess always gets her prince. I was also scared that he would tell me the truth, that he really did want to call off the wedding, and I wasn’t prepared to hear those words from him.
    So I didn’t answer. I just drove, trying to make sense of the scene that I’d just witnessed.
    It felt surreal. He would never do those things, never say those things, not the man who’d given me the necklace that weighted against my chest even now, like his palm pressing over my heart.
    Instinctively, my fingers reached for it, felt its smooth surface, and as he instructed, I imagined him caressing my skin. The tears fell faster. I wanted to feel his caress now. I wanted his warm fingertips to glide along my skin, reassuring me that he loved me. I wanted this all to be a horrible nightmare.
    Maybe the ominous darkness of the sky had been an omen of the horrible truths that I would learn today.
    I wanted to disappear like a crab who buries itself in the wet sand after a cruel wave crashes onto the beach and forces it from its secure spot. I was scrambling, scrambling to fi nd another safe haven after I’d been dislodged from the feeling of security that surrounded me only this morning. I suddenly felt exposed, like everything I knew was a lie, like the one man with whom I’d planned to spend my life had