Chapter Fifty-Four

Yna heard Eric catch his breath.

“You’re so unfair. I can’t even kiss you, baby,” he said tenderly. “You got a split on your lip.” He burrowed his head into the side of her head, breathing in the smell of her hair. “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry, Arianna.”

“Stop. You didn’t do this to me.”

He raised his head and his eyes followed the direction of the scratches and bruises on her face. “I’m going to kill them,” he said in a rough voice.

“E-Eric...” she whispered, wanting to tell him to just stop getting angry, but the tears chose then to appear and start flowing down her cheeks. She couldn’t stop them anymore, nor the self-pity, and her own anger at how she’d been treated even by Señorito Brad.

When he embraced her again, she felt like she was falling building blocks from a formed structure. All the exhaustion, pain, and fear were released from where she’d been trying to hold them in.

She missed him terribly. She missed the warmth of his body, the shape of him, his smell, and the thudding