Shadows In Durango

Chapter 123

*****Vincent's POV*****

The silence in the car was killing me.

I kept my eyes locked on the road, gripping the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles pulsed around the leather.

The tension between us was thick, almost suffocating, and I figured that it wouldn't have been so severe since we had both spent some time apart...

But boy was I wrong!

I could feel her growing antsy beside me, fidgeting, probably lost in her own worried thoughts, and all I could think about was how badly I'd screwed this all up from start to finish.

I knew that I couldn't avoid this conversation any longer, but damn, I still wasn't as ready for it as I thought I would be.

Not even close.

There was a million things to say and to talk through, yet all I could give her right now was thickening silence...

She had every right to be angry, every right to hate me for how I had handled things. The way I'd kept her in the dark. The way I'd gone behind her back.

But what the hell was I supposed to do?

Did she expect me to just sit back and watch her get pulled into even more danger? Watch her father finally catch up with her? Watch her get hurt because of me?

I only thought I was helping...

I glanced over at her, just for a second, and saw the tension in her face, her hands twisting nervously in her lap below.

She was hurting like I was over this, probably more.

And I hated it.

hated knowing that I was the one who'd put that very look on

couldn't take the silence anymore.

Anything.

her. My eyes stayed glued to the road ahead, my voice low, as if saying it too loud would make it

eye her head snapping toward me, and I could feel her gaze burning into the side of my face. "What? I mean, how?" Her voice was shaking,

figure out how to explain myself. "I don't blame

probably seemed that way with how I had acted last night, but I was just well and truly overwhelmed and

fucking monster here, and yet why could I see the guilt all over her face as though it was her who had

couldn't stop herself, she whispered, "I feel that I'm responsible for all of this. If I hadn't come into your life at all,

it, like she really believed she was a curse, or some kind of

wrong, but I didn't. I had no right to snap at her, not after everything

you. But..." I hesitated, knowing what I was about to say wasn't going to be easy for her to hear. "What was

her feel any worse, but I couldn't pretend like it didn't bother me. She should have told me. I needed her to tell me. To trust

wanted to keep

be missing out on the complete story. Head over there to dive into the

was a long pause, and when she finally spoke, her

lot," she admitted, her voice shaking with the weight of her guilt. "You seemed so stressed and on edge that at the time, I didn't want to selfishly add another problem on top of that... but what I didn't know was that your stress all linked back

ones that hit me hard next, pausing any and all thoughts racing through

say to

truly at a loss for words as I stared ahead and waited for my street to open up the

didn't you just tell me?!" She demands to know, her emotions taking their toll now

the car in to park and took a second to

presence close but distant at the same time. I didn't even know where to start now. I'd run it over in my head a thousand times, thinking

known this heavy

I had chose to reach out to the one person she feared most in

but I was now fucking terrified of what might happen once everything was out

I raised my head, forcing myself to face her on this. She was staring out the window, tears glistening in her

now hurting because of me, the

myself to say: "Sofia I thought I was doing the right thing in order to keep you safe, I didn't know he was going to manipulate the situation like he did, and the whole arranged marriage thing wasn't mine or my fathers idea, it was all him - believe me!" I begin to spill out,

of it was malicious, at least not intentionally, but the same fact still remained - I should have discussed it