Faded Perfection (Beautifully Flawed Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

and I. Instead, I let the physical consume me and settle the pain that rose inside my soul. For that moment, it overrode the doubt that all we needed was one another.

Chapter 6
    I looked down from the book I was reading to my cell phone vibrating against my leg. Reading was my only reprieve from the violent and painful thoughts catapulting around my brain, and the number on the cell phone brought them all rolling back over me. My jaw clenched as I stared at the number.
    “They’ve called me twenty times today,” I said, and it was not an over-exaggeration; proven by the fact the screen flicked to MISSED CALLS 25. “How many times have they called you?”
    Adam looked up from his tablet, his finger hovering over the screen as he exhaled. “Enough times.”
    His cell phone began buzzing across the coffee table and both our eyes went to it before he continued playing what I could only assume was Angry Birds from the sounds emitting from the device. “I guess she should’ve thought of what she was saying before she said it,” Adam said as his finger slid across the screen.
    I leaned forward and kissed him. “I’m sorry.”
    He looked up, and his jaw clenched before he replied,  “It’s not your fault they’d rather have me dead.”
    My throat tightened. I wanted to deny his words and tell him it was all a misunderstanding, but I didn’t feel like it was. I heard what she said and the way she said it.
    All we have is Adam.
    “If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t be calling,” I said, running my fingers through his hair, so his eyes fluttered shut. They opened as his cell phone vibrated yet again, tittering on the edge of the coffee table it finally reached.
    I looked at the ceiling before grabbing it and swiping my finger across the screen. “Hello?”
    “River?” Vickie’s voice hammered into my skull and sent my skin prickling with unease. The anger built in my body, and I felt myself begin to tremble as Adam’s eyes raced over my face. It seemed he was as unsure of what I was going to say as I was.
    “Yes,” I replied.
    “Adam won’t return our calls,” she said.
    “I’m sorry to hear that. We’re both not interested in talking to anyone right now.”
    Especially you.
    “Even your mothers?” Vickie asked, reminding me that several missed called were from Mom. Her voice was innocent as if never did anything wrong.
    My fists curled causing my nails to bite into my palms. “Right now, we need space and time.”
    “Why?”
    My voice was shaky as I repeated her question, “Why?”
    “Yes, darling,” she said, and my whole body tensed at the strange mix of soft word and hard tone. “Why?”
    I swallowed as I looked straight ahead, and Adam leaned into my line of vision. He put his hand on my knee and squeezed, mouthing the words
hang up.
    “We have our reasons, Mrs. Beckerson. We’d appreciate it if you gave us some space,” I replied, and I was shocked how I held my calm when I wanted to yell at her; to tell her what a shitty parent she always had been. But she was still Adam’s mother, no matter how cruel she was to us. I wondered how he dealt with it his whole life when I could barely manage to deal with his parents for more than a ten sentence conversation.
    She heaved an exaggerated sigh. “How long do you need?”
    “Adam will reach out to you when he’s ready. Until then, we’d appreciate our privacy. Goodbye, Mrs. Beckerson,” I said. I pressed the end button before she could reply and leaned back to look at the ceiling.
    I watched Adam stand from the corner of my vision, and I closed my eyes as his bare feet padded against the hardwood. I held my breath as I heard the refrigerator open and a cap unscrew. My body tensed, and my nails went in my palms again, this time so hard my skin shifted beneath them.
    Please don’t be that bottle
.
    Adam didn’t drink before, well, not other than at special events. In the week and a half since that phone call, Adam consumed more Southern