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He carefully put the gun down on the coffee table It was out of his hand but not out of his reach

"Calm down, babe Breathe Tell me you’re okay Please"

I triedhtly "What do you want?"

"Kristen, you have to understand I wouldn’t be doing this if there was any other way"

"Marty, you have a gun You can’t have a good reason for this"

"It wouldn’t have come to this if that asshole hadn’t beaten the hell out of me" He pointed at Vincent "I have to protect myself And you I need to talk to you"

"Okay," Ito find hope in hihtly, silently instructing "

"Please, look at aze toward hi what used to be a handso

"That’s better Are you okay?"

"Yes," I lied, a tear running downto hurt you" He studied ave him my full attention "This isn’t easy for hed deeply "My life’s been co how to respond, I nodded silently

"It was so sudden Why did you leave like that? I knohat I did rong but you didn’t even break up with ether, it was just poof Gone How could you do that torier "Marty, you hurt ht this was just another hurdle for us to overcome I didn’t know you’d react that way You’d always been so patient and understanding Do you knohat it’s like to have the love of your life just disappear from your world? I was heartbroken When I went to your aparts were still there I thought you’d come back for them I waited for you Days Weeks I slept on your couch, didn’t go to work I called you, sent you es You didn’t answer any of them"

He studied

"You ran It took me a while to come to terms with it but when I realized what had happened, I felt horrible Like I was abandoned Do you understand how that feels?"

"I’h patch"

"I fell apart, Kristen You know ot fired because I stopped showing up Then I couldn’t get another job Nobody would hirebefore I stopped trying Knohat I do now? Or at least what I did until a o"

"What?"

"I worked at a McDonalds That’s what it ca odd jobs since you leftfired My coworkers would always h at me ‘Look at the Harvard boy He’s no better than us’ Itto do ht I believed I was better than them Which wasn’t true! It made me lose my temper"

"That sounds terrible" As ood to hear about how rough his life had been the past two years

"Yeah, I don’t understand why people have to be such shitheads I try so hard to be a good person but people don’t see that They look at ing s that aren’t true I know I ht? Can you ever forgive me for what I did to you?"

"I don’t know, Marty You hurt me very badly"

"I feel awful about it all There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t regret what I did to you"

"Okay," I said "Is that what this is all about? You just want iveness?"

"That’s part of it You mean so much to me The other part is that I love you, Kristen I’ve said it to you before and Iyou I need to kno you feel Do you still have feelings for me?"

"How can you ask un?"

"I told you, I had no choice It’s that fucker’s fault Vincent" He turned to Vincent "I knoho you are Billionaire, playboy, CEO of Sandworks--Vincent Sorenson" Marty returned his attention toto break your heart He doesn’t love you like I do"

"You don’t know anything about rowled "I’d never hurt Kristen like you did You’re a monster"