Toxic: Logan's Story (Torn #4)(18)

My heart stopped. I saw the pure love in both of their eyes. Jesus. My mind screamed at me to look away, but I couldn’t. Instead, my eyes focused on Drake. How the f*ck did I miss it before?

He’d admitted to being in love with her the night that my relationship with her had fallen apart, but I’d assumed that he didn’t mean it after everything he had put her through. But now, I could see that he was looking at Chloe like she was everything to him. She was his whole world. Up until this moment, I’d thought that Chloe cared more about Drake than he cared about her. I knew that was a lie. I could see just how much he loved her. It was like she was air, and he was starving for oxygen.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to process what was happening inside of me. She was his.

His.

He would take care of her. I didn’t have to anymore. I was in physical pain as I realized that she really wasn’t mine.

“Does anyone have a reason these two should not be joined in holy matrimony?” the preacher asked. When no one spoke up, he continued, “All right then. Will Amber and Eric please bring up the rings?”

I watched in shock as Eric gave a ring to Drake, and Amber handed Chloe one. Then, both of them walked back to where they were standing.

“Drake, do you take Chloe to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” he said proudly.

“Please place the ring on her finger.”

He reached for Chloe’s hand and slid the ring onto her finger. Tears formed in her eyes as she stared down at it.

“Chloe, do you take Drake to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do,” she whispered.

“Please place the ring on his finger.”

I still couldn’t move as I watched her place the ring on his finger. This was it. The end. The last six years no longer mattered. She wasn’t mine, and she never had been.

“By the power vested in me by the state of West Virginia, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

I let her go.

The words were barely out of the preacher’s mouth before Drake had Chloe in his arms, kissing her like he was starving. I heard everyone cheering and shouting around me, but I couldn’t make my voice work. My mind was too busy with trying to process what had just happened. My life had been altered completely in the last ten minutes, and I wasn’t sure where the hell to go now.

“I f*cking love you, Chloe Allen,” Drake said after he pulled away at last.

Allen. She wasn’t my Chloe Richards anymore. She was his.

“I f*cking love you, too, Drake Allen.”

The preacher laughed. “I’d like to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Drake Allen.”

Holding each other’s hands tightly, Drake and Chloe turned to face everyone as man and wife for the first time. This was only the beginning of their new life, but it was the end of mine.





I started to leave as soon as Chloe and Drake’s car disappeared down the narrow road. Everyone else was standing around, talking about how happy they were for Chloe and Drake, but I couldn’t handle it right now. I couldn’t fake my happiness and pretend that the whole f*cking world wasn’t crashing down around me.

I barely managed to get a quick good-bye out to everyone before heading for my car.

Amber chased after me. “Logan, wait! Logan!”

I ignored her as I opened the door and got in my car.

“Logan, talk to me. Please.”

“My head is so f*cked-up right now, Amber. Just let me go. I need to be alone.” I started my car.

“No, the last thing you need right now is to be alone. We’re all going to Gold’s for a little while. Come with us.”

I shook my head. “I can’t. I’m going back to the house.”

“Please, Logan, come with us, or all I’ll do is worry about you. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

I snapped. Something in me just lost it, and poor Amber got the shit end of the deal. “Yeah, it’ll be real f*cking fun to sit around and talk about how happy we all are that Chloe and Drake found their happily ever after. It’ll be real f*cking fun to sit there and pretend like I’m happy while I’m drowning on the inside. Fuck off, Amber!” By the time I finished, I was shouting.

The others were close enough that they had heard every word I just screamed into Amber’s face. No one spoke a word as they all stared at me in shock. Amber looked devastated, but I didn’t apologize. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even speak anymore. I slammed my door shut and tore out of the clearing like my ass was on fire.

I didn’t slow down until I pulled into my driveway. As soon as I cut the engine, I all but ran to the house. I unlocked the front door and went straight to my room. Once I made it there, I stopped in the middle of it and just stood there. My chest was heaving as I fought to control the emotions raging inside me. Hurt, anger, betrayal—they all made an appearance. Finally, rage won out.

I walked to my nightstand and picked up a picture of Chloe and me. It had been taken only a few months after we met. We both looked so young and innocent in it. With more force than I’d realized I was capable of, I threw it against the far wall. The glass shattered and fell to the floor. I didn’t stop there though. I grabbed other photos of Chloe and me off the walls and flung them, too. They were pictures of moments in our lives that were important to me—the two of us in freshman English, at lunch, sitting together in a movie theater, curled up on Amber’s couch, prom, graduation night when we spent the entire night out together, the day we moved into our dorms, the day she finally agreed to be mine. All of them were just reminders that everything I’d dreamed about was a lie.