Fighting for Love (Second Chances #4)(67)
“Don’t you want to know the real reason why Shelby dumped you back in the day?” Kyle asked with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “I have to tell you, it’s pretty f*cked up. Even I felt kind of sorry for you after I found out.”
Matt opened the door and paused, letting it fall back shut before turning around, his gaze focused on Kyle and nothing else. He didn’t even budge or acknowledge me when I pulled on his arm; all he saw was red and Kyle’s face right in the middle of it. His breaking point had finally come and there was nothing I could do to stop him.
Quickly dropping his gym bag, he took off after Kyle with such speed and determination I didn’t even see the first punch until Kyle’s head snapped to the side and blood flew out of his mouth. Luckily, Matt stopped with that one punch, but he was coiled so tight that I was afraid to even touch him or say anything.
Kyle righted himself and laughed, showing off his bloody teeth. “So, anyway,” he continued as if he didn’t just get punched, “I thought every guy should be told when he’s going to be a father. I guess she was too ashamed to say she was pregnant with your kid.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Matt thundered furiously. “Why would I ever believe that shit?”
Grinning, Kyle turned his evil leer my way. “Because it’s the truth. Why don’t you ask her? I may have lied about the part of her being ashamed to have your baby, but I didn’t exactly get the whole story.”
Out of the blue, Matt struck again and grabbed Kyle by the neck, slamming him into the side of the brick building. “If you don’t leave right now,” he exclaimed, “I’m going to break both of your f*cking legs and you can forget about ever competing for a title again.”
Kyle’s face had started to turn red and he choked, gasping for air. Matt let him go and Kyle fell to the ground, immediately grabbing his neck and coughing. Marching to his bag, Matt picked it up and grabbed his keys out of the side pocket before turning to me.
“You’re coming with me,” he commanded, grasping my elbow firmly. He led me to his truck and opened the door, pushing me in quickly before shutting it.
I had never seen him so angry before, not even when he saw the pictures of me and Kyle. The level of rage I could feel emanating off of him was so intense I was scared to even breathe without having the fear that he would blow up. There was no way he would understand anything I told him being that way.
When he got in the truck, he wouldn’t even look at me; he just drove. It felt like the walls were closing in all around me and I couldn’t breathe. My hands shook and my teeth chattered in the silence even though I was burning up and on the verge of a breakdown. The look in his eyes scared me even though he was staring at the road and not me. There wasn’t only anger in those green eyes I loved so much, but complete and utter despair … and I put it there.
Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off by saying, “Not now, Shelby. Just … don’t talk right now.”
I pressed my lips together, hoping it would keep my cries silent, but I failed and he heard me, wincing as my pain became evident. A lone tear fell down the side of his cheek and in that moment I knew he realized that all Kyle had said was true.
He was broken and I watched him shatter into a million pieces in front of my eyes. What he didn’t know was that I had been broken since the first day I left him. I was so close to having the pieces put back together again, but now …
It wasn’t ever going to happen.
WHEN MATT PULLED INTO THE driveway, he immediately got out of the car and started toward the front door, his long strides gaining him distance from me. Is he not going to hear me out? I wondered frantically. Jumping out of his truck, I raced along behind him and followed him inside.
He took the stairs four at a time and slammed his bedroom door before I even had time to get to the top. “Matt,” I called out, feeling the desperation start to seep in, “you have to talk to me.”
Thinking I could walk straight into his room, my heart sank when the handle wouldn’t budge; he had locked me out. I heard him behind the door throwing things around and moving wildly in his room.
“Let me in, Matt,” I pleaded. “You have to let me explain why I did what I did.”
After another few seconds the door burst open and I stumbled back into the wall on the other side of the hall. Matt stood there, his face pale and his eyes red, staring at me as if I was a stranger.
“So it is true?” he asked, “You were … you were carrying my …” He tried to finish what he was saying, but when his gaze fell down to my stomach the anger was back. Stalking toward me, he dropped the bag in his hands and held my arms in his firm grasp, his eyes wild and unpredictable.
“Yes or no, Shelby. You left me knowing you were pregnant with my child, didn’t you?” he asked furiously.
“I wanted you to have a future,” I cried. “You were stressed enough as it was taking care of your mother and sister. I couldn’t add a baby on top of that. I did it for you, so you could pursue your dreams.”
He scoffed, glaring down at me. “My future … my dreams? Dammit, Shelby, you were my future. You were all I ever wanted. If I had to work ninety hours a week I would’ve done it just to keep you. How could you do this to me, to us?”