Avowed (The Manipulation Trilogy Book 3) (8 page)

“Thank you. He is pretty perfect.  I know coming to my wedding must have been hard for you, and I don’t know the full story of what happened between you and Damon, but I know you loved him and I’m thankful that you were looking out for him,” I say with complete honesty. Looking up, I see Abbi looks sad, her eyes are filled with tears but she’s trying to hold them at bay. This cannot be easy speaking to the wife of the man you love and I know she still loves him. I can see it. I can see the raw pain of loving someone you shouldn’t. She lifts her eyes to mine when she realises I’ve stopped talking and I hand her a tissue. She gives me a watery smile as she dabs her tears away.

“I'm sorry. I didn’t want to cry, and I really did love him Ella. We were happy one time, and then it all went wrong,” she says sadly.

“What happened?” I ask. I know Damon’s side of the story but I want Abbi’s. They always say there are three sides to every story. I want to know both Damon and Abbi’s then hopefully I can work out the truth. I don’t believe you can love somebody still, after all this time like Abigail does, and have been the one to break that relationship in the first place. Something doesn’t sound right in Damon’s story and I want to find out what. Call it woman’s intuition. Abbi searches my eyes for a moment before she tells me about Damon and her past.

“I always thought Damon and I would marry. He was my fairytale,” she says with a watery smile. “It was never official and Damon never asked me but we’d spoken about it. My family moved next door to Flora and George and our parents became fast friends when I was sixteen. Within a week it was obvious Damon, Spencer and Wesley were top dogs at school, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. Not that I thought I would stand a chance at becoming friends with them,” she says with a laugh as she remembers meeting the Hunt boys and their friend.

“Why?” I ask with a laugh.

A waitress brings my tea and biscuits, interrupting us for a minute. Abbi answers my question as soon as we’re alone again. I dig in to my shortbread, needing food in my empty stomach, washing it down with a sip of tea as I listen.

“They were popular but no one ever got in their inner circle. They were happy just being the three guys and of course Sofia too. I quickly learned that Sofia had declared Wesley as her future husband from the age of five and they’d been together ever since.”

My brows rise at that. Five years old? That’s a bit young. Abigail laughs at me, seeing my confusion, and takes a minute before she speaks again.

“I suppose she laid her claim to him as best friends and then when they were older they became an official couple. I don’t know the full ins and outs. Sofia never really spoke much about it to me. Anyway, when we moved next to the Hunt’s I did everything I could to avoid them. I was shy, quiet, and very much a loner. As you can imagine I didn’t want to be centre of attention and knew I would be if I was to go anywhere near them so I stayed within my own little bubble. That is until my mum forced me to hang out with those four several times. We all became friends and our relationship just sort of happened.”

Jealousy burns within me as I think of Damon’s life before me. I know it’s silly to feel that way but I feel like there is still so much more to Damon than he’s shown me. I think I will always worry that maybe Abbi and Damon’s past isn’t finished and until I can find out the whole truth behind their past, I don’t think I’ll ever feel secure.

“I’ll be honest, in my head we were perfect and made for each other, but looking back now I know that’s not the case. We didn’t have that forever, all consuming love like you do,” she says. Giving me a grin, she looks away and then gulps her drink down.

I can feel her pain just from watching her try to avoid my gaze as she gathers herself.

“I always thought I’d marry Damon.” She looks me straight in the eyes now. “But a stupid fight ruined it and I lost it all,” she says sadly. Tears glisten in her eyes again but she doesn’t stop. She releases her pain through her tears. “I loved him. I loved him so much Ella. I felt lost when he left me. I didn’t even know why. I’m still not entirely sure.” Her laugh is hollow and haunting. She’s never had closure and I don’t think Damon has. He’s convinced she cheated but I don’t believe it. This broken woman in front of me loved him too much to throw it all away.

“Abbi,” I say softly. “What do you think happened? Have you never asked Damon?” She laughs bitterly.

“I hounded him. Begged for him to speak to me and let me try to fix what had broken but he wouldn’t give me the time of day,” she says sadly. “I know I had a good thing with Damon and I didn’t want to lose it. I refused to leave it. It wasn’t until you that I finally accepted we were over. There was a time when I thought we might have something again. I was attacked and Damon was there to save me. He took care of me.” I swallow at her words. Is she talking about when Lydia attacked her?

“What happened?” I ask gently. I offer Abbi some of my shortbread but she declines. I wrap my hands around the cup of tea and wait for her to continue. I want to know what happened when Lydia attacked her.

“I tried to kiss him and he pushed me away. He told me we didn’t have a relationship like that anymore and that he was sorry,” she pauses and I know she’s becoming close to her limit. I have some questions and really want to push her to speak but I don’t think she’s ready for it now. I want to know about Lydia, how Leona fits into it all, and I want to give Abbi what she needs.

Closure.

I know Leona is involved somehow. After Abbi’s words at my wedding I know there is a lot more I still don’t know. Before I can speak Abigail excuses herself to go to the ladies, so I sit staring out the window. What part did Leona play? How was she involved? Abbi hasn’t mentioned her name once so where does her animosity towards Leona come from?

My phone vibrates, alerting me to a text message. I laugh when I see it’s from ‘The Daddy’, knowing Damon has changed his name without me realising, and quickly open it.

The Daddy: I love you. Hurry home to me, I miss you xx
 

My heart melts. I’ve only been gone a little over an hour but seeing his text has made me realise I miss him too. Damon dressed to go to work this morning, but after hearing my plans he chose to work from home, no doubt so he can interrogate me when I return.

I’m hoping to have a visitor with me though. 

I love you xx

I quickly reply and place my phone down on the table as Abbi comes back to take a seat. She gives me a small smile. “Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yes. Thank you. Sorry, I needed a breather.”

“No worries,” I say with a smile. “Abbi, I think you should come back with me and talk to Damon.” Abigail is already shaking her head. I reach across the table and grasp her hand. “You need closure. You both do. Damon has a different story than you and I’m almost positive it’s incorrect. I really think you should.”

“He won’t talk about it Ella. I’ve tried,” she says.

“He will. I’ll ask him to. You both need this. Please Abbi,” I plead. We all need this. Abbi inhales deeply before releasing it.

“Okay,” she says. I give her a smile of encouragement and squeeze her hand gently before pulling back.

“Can you tell me what happened? Why did you fight?” I ask gently. She frowns before nodding.

“We fought over Leona,” she says. I gasp. I fucking
knew
it was something to do with that woman.

“What happened? How was she involved?” I ask. Abigail laughs resentfully.

“Leona lived next door to me. We were all neighbours but she didn’t speak to me at school. It wasn’t until we were at college that we started to speak and after a while she befriended me. Damon and I had been together for two years before Leona popped on the scene. It took me a while to let her in because she’d never been bothered before so I guess you could say I was cautious at first. After a while we were inseparable. Wesley and Sofia started coming out less and less, because they didn’t like her much but she was my friend. She was fun, and we were young. I wanted fun.”

“Spencer always went off to find girls after a few drinks so most nights out it was Leona, Damon and me left. Leona was always flirty but that was how she was with everyone. I think that’s why Sofia didn’t like her. It never bothered me until she popped into Damon’s house one day, unannounced, and was shocked to see me there. Damon was just as shocked as me to see her there. She had no reason to be, and had just decided to drop by.” I can tell by her heavy breathing that she’s mad just speaking about it all. Abbi takes another drink before she continues.

“After that, though, she began to be inappropriate with her flirting. She’d rub against Damon and turn her back to me when she spoke to him, as if to cut me out of the conversation. She always had to be touching him, and talking into his ear as if their conversations were private. Damon seemed unaffected, like he didn’t notice it, or it didn’t bother him.” I stare at her in shock. Damon really doesn’t notice her. He’s told me time and again that he doesn’t, hasn’t and will never look at Leona like that and until Abbi has just spoken of his unaffected behaviour it never really clicked. Now it has. It’s like she’s invisible to him.
Leona is invisible to Damon
. She always has been. Abigail cuts off my train of thought. 

“I was so angry with her. I ended the friendship and moved on. I had more time with Damon which I loved, but I also missed my friend. Stupid I know, but she was my only real friend I guess. Sofia had pulled away more by this point and I was lonely.” Looking back at me, she lets me see the pain in her eyes.

“I can understand loneliness Abbi,” I say softly.

“One Saturday night she rang me and said she needed a girl’s night out. I was excited to get some girl time. She apologised to me.” I raise my brow at her. I never thought I’d hear of Leona saying sorry. Abbi laughs. “I was shocked too. I accepted and invited her out with us the following weekend. She agreed and said she was excited.”

“What did she do?” I ask. I know it’s coming, the part where Leona shows her claws, and breaks up their relationship. Abigail shakes her head.

“Nothing. We had fun that night and made plans for the following weekend. Damon wasn’t happy when I told him and we fell out. He thought it was wrong to invite her out knowing she made Sofia, Wesley and himself uncomfortable, but I wasn’t bothered. He relented and begrudgingly agreed that she could come out. But all night he sat there brooding. He was angry and quiet which set my temper off.  PMS,” she says with an eye roll. “I wanted to have fun and he was causing a stink. I was young and stupid Ella. I decided to forget his mood, and Leona and I got drunk. We kept drinking and dancing until Damon had had enough and told me we were leaving. I refused to leave and we argued again. I told him to leave,” she chokes out. “I told him to just go and leave me the fuck alone, and he did.”

Her choked words bring a lump to my throat.

“He left and that was it. He never took me back.” She whispers. Tears brim her eyes before spilling over, slowly tracking down her cheeks. “I sobered quickly after he left, my buzz gone, but Leona tried to cheer me up with more drinks. I didn’t want to drink anymore, I just wanted to chase after Damon and tell him I was sorry for telling him to go. I didn’t mean it.” She looks me dead in the eyes as she says it. Like she thinks that’s why they ended. She thinks that because she sent him away he decided to stay away. I need the rest of the story.

“What happened then?” I ask.

“What do you mean?” she questions as she wipes away her falling tears.

“Did you stay out? How did you and Leona stop being friends?”

“Not for long. Leona saw how upset I was and asked if I wanted to go somewhere quieter where I could think and have some more fun while getting my head together. She told me to give Damon time, and to think about everything I wanted to say to him about his behaviour and then enjoy our night. There was no point in being upset because Damon needed time to cool off and so did I, so I agreed. We went to a house party where I sat in the corner feeling down. I wanted to go to him so badly but I knew Leona was right so I texted him. I told him I was sorry and I loved him. I waited for a reply but my battery died before he did. I finally passed out from all the drinks I’d had previously and woke to Leona helping me upstairs. We crashed in a room together and left in the morning. I went straight to Damon but he wasn’t home,” she pauses, getting tearful again.

I sit in silence, waiting for her to continue. She takes deep breaths and closes her eyes. I give her time to gather her emotions, knowing she’s sharing the most painful part. She’s sharing her loss.

“I went home and put my phone on charge. He replied to my text from the night before telling me he loved me too and I seriously needed to rethink my friendship with Leona. He told me I was changing because of her and it was ruining our relationship. After calling him and getting voicemail again and again I decided to have a nap then go track him down so we could get back on the same page. I loved him Ella, and if he needed me to not be friends with Leona then I was okay with that. When I found him hours later he was drunk. Really drunk.” Abbi shudders as she recalls finding him and stops speaking.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me,” I say softly, grabbing her hand again. I give her a squeeze as she cries and gets her emotions under control again.

“He was so mean,” she whispers. “I’ve never seen him so angry Ella. Damon shouted at me then slammed the door in my face. I was stunned. I tried calling and seeing him but he wouldn’t. He just left for good. He ripped himself from my life.” Abbi looks lost as she speaks. Like a child alone in the world. I want to lean over and hug her. Instead I give her a squeeze and caress my bump when my daughter kicks.