BrokenHearted Read Online Free PDF Page A

insanely attracted to him.
    Just as Mom had warned, his charm began to wear off. He could be as mean as a spitting cobra when he didn’t get his way. Jake had everything he wanted from the moment he talked, and I was the exact opposite. Everything came easily to him and was given to him. Everything was hard for me, and I worked for it.
    Mom had taught me many things when I was younger, but a few really stuck out to me that I appreciated as an adult. The important messages she had ingrained in me stuck.  I would never take anything for granted again, and I would never let another person take away my bright light. No person should make me feel unworthy or unwanted. Growing up with a single mother was hard, but the older I got, the harder I saw it was. Then after dropping out of college, I realized I let myself down. I let my mother down.
    At first, I felt sorry for myself, but then I had a revelation. I would never let anyone take something away from me and never again would I think negatively. I had a life to live, and sure as shit, I was going to live it, with or without a man, just as my mother had done happily for years. 
    I pull up to Antoine’s after Sadie called me to tell me she needed to talk to me. She sounded upset, and I didn’t hesitate to meet her. I make my way in the door, hearing the creaking of the old wood floors. I immediately spot Sadie waiting for me with a look on her face that could rot paint. She was pissed, and I had no idea why. I had only seen her this pissed a handful of times.
    I stroll up beside her ready to hear why she was upset when she points at Jake making out with another woman. And I don’t mean kissing. I mean damn near tearing at her clothes and dry humping her.
    I hold my hand up to tell her I was okay but holding my composure. I took the high road and instead of walking up to him and slapping the shit out of him, I exit the bar with a feeling of determination. I had seen it for myself, and now, I could use all that anger to end what I should have ended long before now. My hurt overrode my love.
    Sadie follows me out the door and to my car, confused at my actions.
    “I wanted to cut the cheating motherfucker, but you just walk out calmly?”
    “I am going to deal with him, Sadie … trust me.”
    “Go back in there and deal with it,” she demands.
    “Sadie, thank you for getting me here. I needed to see it for myself. But I will handle it.” I smile wickedly and then she got the point.
    “I hope you make him pay is all I’m sayin’.”
    “Now, go back in and have a good time. I will call you tomorrow,” I state like I am her mother.
    “Love you.”
    “Love you.” I return her sentiment.
    *****
    I drive to the trailer I had only owned for a couple of months, and I stomp in. I grab all his stuff and start chunking it out the front door, not caring what was damaged, shattered, or destroyed. His laptop, his Bose headphones, shoes, anything I could throw. I even stripped my bed and threw the sheets off. I yelled all the names that I have wanted to call him as I did it and cried. I cried for the relief I was feeling as much as the hurt I felt from his betrayal. I cried over the illusion of loving him.
    I know I wasn’t an easy person to love … I have always been that way, which is why I had only had a few boyfriends my entire life. But Jake had changed me and not in a way that I was proud of. I wasn’t stupid. I knew who I was. He weakened me by not only his words but also by his actions.  He had crept into my mind, my goodness.
    An hour passed and I was sitting on my makeshift porch drinking a beer—okay, maybe my third—when Jake drove up in his truck. Seeing his items spread along the lawn enraged him, and he immediately started cussing me out. The look in his eyes probably should have concerned me, but it didn’t. I was too angry.
    “Why in the hell … Is that my laptop … Ryann?” He gritted his teeth with infuriation. “Get over here and pick my shit up or