Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel Bella Emy (best ebook reader for laptop .TXT) 📖

But now? And this? I don’t know.

The tears now spill over onto my face. There is no more holding them back.

“Lexi, please listen and hear me out. I just want the best for you. You deserve to be happy, and I know Kalen would do that. He would make you so damn happy.” I watch her take small steps up to me, but she stops when I pick up my cell phone and begin to dial. “Wait, what are you doing?”

As the customer service representative comes on the line, I let my eyes fall back to the screen before me. “Hi, yes, my name is Alexa Alderidge, and I need to change my flight, please.” I then let my eyes find her once more and I see her reaching for the door.

As she places her hand on the knob and opens the door, she says, “You’re making a huge mistake, Lexi. I hope you’re ready for it,” and then she closes it behind her.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Gone. Vanished. Burnt. To the ground.

My dreams are all gone. I’m standing right outside of what would have been my lounge. It probably wasn’t a wise idea to come here alone upon the plane touching down, but how could I not stop by and see the wreckage firsthand?

“Yes, we received the claim a couple of days ago,” the insurance lady finally responds moments later.

I tilt my head toward the sky and shut my eyes. This is going to take forever, and I just don’t have the luxury of waiting. I have bills to pay, and now, a damn disaster to clean up. I open my eyes and look at the burnt devastation in front of me. “Well, do you know how long that will take to process? I’m kind of depending on the payment.”

She takes a breath, obviously annoyed. Sorry, I’m disturbing your morning, lady.

“You should see a settlement in about ninety to one hundred and twenty days.”

Is she serious right now?

“Will that be all, Mrs. Alderidge?”

Do I correct her and tell her Ms? I’m not married… not even close to it.

Frowning, I respond. “Yeah, yeah. That’s all.”

“Great! Well, if there’s nothing more, you have yourself a lovely day. Thank you for choosing United Incorporated. Take care, Mrs. Alderidge.”

“It’s Ms! Ms! God! UGH!” I shout into the phone, but the lady has already hung up since the words left her mouth.

I tuck my phone back into my pocket like a madwoman. This can’t be happening to me.

“Real shame what happened here,” a male voice from behind me says.

I spin around and see a man in his middle to upper sixties or so taking in the visual of what the fire left behind. Hopefully, he hasn’t heard my conversation.

I nod. “Yeah… it is.”

“They say the owner of this place was going to be just starting out, and now it’s gone.”

Yeah, ain’t that the truth.

I nod once more.

“Did you know the fella?” he asks.

“Fella?” I raise an eyebrow.

He nods, pointing to where the building used to be. “Yeah, yeah. The owner of what was supposed to be a bar, for us…”

Ah. He thinks a man was behind all of this, and of course he figured it was only going to be a bar for the people in town who like to drink a little too much.

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t.”

He rubs his chin. “Well, maybe someone else will buy what’s left of it and fix it up nice. Anyway, you take care now.”

“Take care,” I respond as he walks off.

I stand back, taking one last glance at what would have been my new life, and wipe one final tear from my eyes. It’s gone. This is over, and I need to move on from yet another thing missing from my life.

I dump my suitcases on the floor as I step back inside my apartment and lock the door behind me.

Sure, everything is as I left it, but inside, I don’t feel so hot.

Emotional wreck. Hot mess. Yeah, that’s how it’s been. Am I ever going to get back to feeling like myself again?

I head to my living room and sit on the couch, staring straight ahead at the beige painted wall. Why do I feel so blah? Why do I feel so empty inside, like I don’t know what to do with myself?

But I know exactly what I have to do. I have to get out of my head. I have to pick up the pieces of what’s left and move on, move forward.

First things first. I need to call Erin.

I cringe, thinking about the way I left. She wasn’t happy with my decision, but what choice did I have?

She begged me to stay on the west coast with her to start over again, but I couldn’t. Besides her and the Coles’, there is nothing there for me.

Kalen is just a ticking time bomb of bad memories, one wrong thought, and the waterworks explode from my eyes. It’s no way to live and seeing him every single day would not be good for me. He would make things worse for me.

Granted he’s on the island and he wouldn’t be where Erin is.

But knowing that he’s close by is enough…

Being back in California would be a reminder in itself. I need to stay my ass right here on the east coast.

I take a deep breath and pull out my cell phone. It rings five times and then goes to her voicemail. I hang up and try again. This time, it only rings twice before the voicemail picks up once more.

She’s giving me the “F-U” button.

Fine, I deserve that.

Instead of hanging up again this time, I decide to leave a message for her. “Hi, Erin. It’s me. I just wanted to let you know I arrived here safely, like I always do after I come out to see you guys. Anyways, give me a call when you can. I feel bad about the way I left, but I… I don’t know. Just call me,