Home>>read Love Survives free online

Love Survives(35)

By:Jennifer Foor


When my brother reached forward, taking her by the neck something snapped. I refused to allow him to put a hand on her even if I had to take him down the way I’d been trained to do. I threw him away from her with one hand. “If you ever touch her like that again, I’ll kill you.”

While I anticipated my next stroke, by keeping my grip fastened to his neck, I felt her gentle hands grabbing me from behind, as if she was begging me to stop. Then I heard her reiterate. “Please, don’t do this.” I felt my body relaxing, giving in to her request as if she had magical calming powers. Kat spoke from behind me, making sure it was loud enough for both of us to hear. “Branch, we need to talk.”

“Bullshit. You need to get dressed and go get ready. This shit never happened, do you hear me?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Was he really going to let this go? Did he not see that we’d spent the night together? What could he possibly do to rid himself of the image of walking in and finding us together? Then it hit me. He didn’t care about what she’d done as long as I didn’t get to be with her. It made the bile rise to my throat. He was the epitome of desperate.

Kat refused to let him win this battle. “No! I’m not marrying you. I can’t. I don’t love you like you need me to. I’ve never loved you like I love him, and you’ve always known it, haven’t you? Why did you tell me he never wanted me? How could you do that to your own brother, and to me?”

Branch pushed me out of the way to be facing Kat. She put her finger up to make me wait for a second. I could tell she was prepared for whatever he was about to do or say, in her own way showing me that she could be strong and fight for what she cared about.

Branch responded, spitting as his spoke with such aggression. “Are you really going to bring up shit from when we were teenagers to justify you fucking my brother the night before our wedding? I should have known you’d whore yourself out to him. You always did want things that were beneath you.”

Like slow motion, I watched her hand slap against his cheek. “Get out! Get out of my face!”

He grabbed her arms, and I’d finally seen enough. I placed my hand on my brother’s back. “Let go of her, Branch.”

“Screw you. You two make me sick. If I never see you again it will be too soon. Get your shit out of my apartment before I get home, Katy. After I’m done telling my parents about the two of you, I’ll be the only child that this family has. You just ruined your lives. I hope that pussy was worth it.” The last part was for me. Though I didn’t intentionally set out to hurt my brother, I knew in his own way he was hurting, but I couldn’t feel sorry for him, not when I knew he’d done everything in his power to keep us apart. All this time he’d known that we were in love with each other, yet he fed us lies to prevent us from being happy together. Even jealousy wouldn’t make me do that to my own brother. I didn’t have that kind of deceit in me.

I hit my brother, sending him falling down to the floor. Then I lifted him by the collar of his shirt and shoved him outside of my door. When it was shut, I turned to see her collapsing on the floor, struggling to breathe. She was fighting to control her emotions, and I didn’t know how to soothe her.

When she looked at me I saw what I feared the most. This couldn’t be happening. Kat was about to push me away. I may have been away for a long time, but I knew her every expression. Her conflicted mind wasn’t going to allow her to be happy, not even if it broke her into a million pieces.



She started dressing before I could come up with something logical to say. I approached her, feeling as if I was losing everything I’d gained. “What are you doing? You don’t have to leave. We can do this together. Did you think I’d expect you to face them by yourself?” I couldn’t let her leave me. It wasn’t an option. We hadn’t just made love, I’d given her all that I had left. She’d brought me to life, only to shock me back to death. This was unbearably hard to watch.

“I need to get my bag out of my room before they all come looking to kill me. I’ll be right back, I promise. You don’t have to worry.” Somehow, as her words were meant to be reassuring, I knew they were a lie.

Before she could step foot out of the door, I reached for her, taking ahold of her arm. “Kat, you are going to come back so we can talk, right? You’re not just saying you are?” I wanted her to look me in the eyes even if it broke my heart. I wanted to remember how she looked when she walked away from our future once again.

She tried to put on a brave face, but I saw right through her. “Of course. Stop worrying. I’ll be right back.”