Cursed Love Read Free Page A

he’d been playing innocent since it happened and I didn’t
really expect him to quit now.
    “I saw you, Aaron, with my own two eyes! You
were with Inez. At the jewelry store. Two weeks ago.” Man, was I
playing verbal Clue?
    He scrunched his brows together. “Amelia, the
only place I went that weekend was to the—” He broke off abruptly,
as if some light bulb had just flashed on in his mind. “Oh.”
    “Yeah. Oh,” I said, giving him a nasty smile.
“Forget that already, too?” I didn’t know what was worse—him lying
and cheating on me, or him needing the reminder about it. And for a
second, I almost— almost —felt bad for Inez, which ticked me
off even more.
    His eyes widened so much I thought they’d pop
clear out of his skull. Within seconds, he was smiling and doubled
over from laughing. “Wait.” He sat up, holding his sides.
“ That’s what this whole thing is about? Because you saw me
and Inez together?”
    I frowned. “What the hell is so funny about
cheating on me?” He wasn’t helping his case any that was for sure.
After I’d seen him, I’d barely resisted the urge to walk straight
up to him and punch him. But if he didn’t stop laughing, I was
seriously going to rectify that decision.
    When tears started rolling from his eyes, I
stood up and shoved him. The laugh died as he fell backwards from
the swing and landed with a dull thud that sent clouds of dust
flying up. I turned and walked away. Stupid, no-good, cheating
jerk!
    “Amelia, wait!”
    I spun around as he ran towards me and as
soon as he was within striking range, I shoved him again.
“You—you—” I couldn’t find an adequate word for what he was.
Shaking my head, I sighed. “Just leave me alone, Aaron. I want to
hit you, but I really don’t want to.” Never mind the fact that made
no sense. I didn’t care.
    “Amelia.” He grabbed my arm. “Amelia—let me
explain. I did not cheat on you with Inez, and I didn’t even lie to
you.” When I glared, he cleared his throat and muttered, “Okay,
technically I did lie, but not about anything important.”
    “Oh? And what exactly is your
definition of ‘important’?” I asked quietly.
    He took a quick step backward when my hands
went to fists again. “Just let me explain. Please?”
    I crossed my arms over my chest. The first
thing he said that I didn’t like, I was out of there. Love be
damned; his or mine. “You’ve got two minutes, Aaron. Make it
good.”
    “Can we sit down? Okay,” he said when I
continued to glare, “sitting is a no.” He dragged his hands through
his hair. “I did not cheat. On that I never lied. Yes, I was at the
jewelry store and yes, Inez was with me, but so was my sister. We
met her there; she was already inside.”
    I raised my eyebrow. “Okay…?”
    His gaze lowered as he reached into his
pocket and jiggled change. “I went in there to…” He sucked in a
breath and then exhaled it deeply. “I went in there to buy you
something.”
    What?
    I blinked once. Then twice. “Huh? What?”
    “I wanted to get you something for our
anniversary, and for Valentines Day.” He looked up. “I didn’t know
what you would like, so I asked my sister and Inez to go with me. I
wanted to make sure I didn’t buy you something stupid. This,” he
said, pulling a velvet box from his pocket. He shoved it at me
awkwardly, like it might self-destruct.
    I opened my mouth to say something but no
sound came out. When I tried again and still no sound emerged, I
gave up and looked down, running a finger over the surface of the
case. I pulled the lid up. And then I burst into hysterics,
laughing and crying at the same time. It was a silver necklace with
a pendent. The pendent was…I couldn’t fathom the words. It was a
small silver heart. Shooting through the heart was a single arrow,
the tip made of a black stone.
    Onyx.
    My heart leaped and I wasn’t sure my ribs
could contain it long. “I’m sorry,” I sobbed, the word bubbling out
of