Clarissa's POV

“I’m going with you wherever you’re going,” I answer him.

He runs a hand down his face before exhaling loudly.

“You can’t,” he finally tells me. I was testing his patience, but I didn’t care. I don’t care what happens after today. I was going to tell him everything I had to. And this time, I was doing it for myself. Not for him or anyone else. For me.

“I need to talk to you,” I insist.

“Clarissa, we’ve already said everything we needed to. What else do you have to say?” he asks. “You saw what happened when everyone returned from the dinner. We almost got caught, and we had to hide. If being together means that we must hide from everyone else, how can it be the right thing to do?”

“Why are you like this?” I whisper, unable to hide the pain from my voice. “You claim to care about me, but you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t put me through all this pain. You love to hurt me; that’s what makes you happy. Hurting me brings you joy.”

I know my words this time have managed to anger him.

“How can you say that?” he growls. “Everything that I do is for you. Every fucking thing. I never think about anyone else as much as I think about you. Every day of my life, I’m thinking of ways to keep you safe. How can you tell me that I enjoy hurting you?”

“You’re lying!” I hiss. “This is all just some sick game to you, Damon. You don’t care about me. Stop fooling yourself.”

His jaw clenches, and he starts the jeep before I can say anything else.

“What are you doing?” I demand.

He leans over me and puts my seatbelt on. I try not to inhale his scent like I usually love doing.

He says nothing as he leans back and mashes down on the accelerator.

“Where the hell are you going?” I demand. “Are you taking me to see where you plan on taking Anya on your honeymoon?”

I was being sarcastic, but it was only making him angrier.

He’s not the only one; I was fuming inside. There were so many emotions that I wanted to get out of my system.

“Are we running away?” I try again.

His hands tighten on the steering wheel, and he pulls the jeep onto a lonely dirt road. He doesn’t stop until he’s far away from the main road.

“Tell me,” he says as the jeep comes to a stop. “Tell me everything that you want to. Get it all out. Every single emotion, every single thought, everything that’s hurting you, tell me it all right now.”

“What?” I ask, confused. He didn’t want to hear me a minute ago; what had changed his mind?

“I’m a horrible a**hole who doesn’t care about you, am I not?” he asks me. “So say it. Tell me everything. Hate me all you want. I’m marrying someone else. I’m hurting you. I’m taking your happiness away. I’m a heartless fool whose only aim is to hurt you, and I want you to tell me that.”

I narrow my eyes. What was this? A chance for me to get all of my emotions out so that he could marry Anya without any guilt?

“I can’t believe you,” I shout. “You’re right. You are a heartless a**hole. You fooled me. You made me fall in love with your kind words and actions. All this time, you knew there was never any chance for us. You used me. You used me to fill your ego, and now you’re disposing of me just like Anya disposed of Dante like he was nothing. You’re no different from her. The two of you deserve each other!”

He winced at my words, and I was happy that he did. I wanted to hurt him just like he was hurting me.

“I can’t believe I ever had feelings for someone like you. You’re not the Damon I thought I knew. You’re a stranger. My Damon would never hurt me like this.”

He nods. “You’re right. I’m not your Damon.”

He was throwing salt in my wounds intentionally. He was trying to make me hate him. And he was doing an excellent job at it.

I unbuckle the seatbelt and grab him by his shirt.

His eyes are cold as he stares at me. Waiting for me to say something. Waiting for me to hate him. He’d hardened his heart to let me go. He’d made up his mind.

I can’t stop the tears this time. I knew this wedding was happening now; I was in denial all along. This wasn’t just a wedding; this was Damon leaving me for good. Abandoning me, like my family in the past did to me. The family I never knew. He wasn’t any different from them. I always thought that he would never hurt me, but I was so wrong. He was just as bad as they were. Even worse.

“I love you!” I scream as I pound my fists against his chest. “I love you! I love you! I love you!”

Damon lets me hit him without trying to intervene. He lets me hurt him. He closes his eyes as I continue to confess my love for him, even though I know it wouldn’t make him change his mind.

“You’re a coward!” I shout. “A coward, Damon!”

He finally opens his eyes, and I gasp at the tears I see in them. He grabs my neck and covers my mouth with his. It’s the first time Damon has kissed me without me starting it first. I was caught off guard.

He kisses me with urgency and hunger like it’s the last time. And it was the last time. He knows it just as much as I did. He grabs my waist and pulls me on top of him. I gasp as he pushes his tongue into my mouth and gently cups my cheeks.

Even though I’m angry, I can’t stop wrapping my arms around his neck and rubbing our bodies closer together. His hands are all over my body, touching as much of me as he possibly could, and I’m doing the same. I can’t stop touching him like I’m never going to see him again.

After what seems like an hour of us kissing, he finally pulls away from me. His lips are red and swollen, and I know that mine are the same.

He touches his forehead to mine as his finger gently rubs my left cheek.

“Clarissa,” he groans. “It shouldn’t be this hard for us to let go. It’s the last thing I want to happen, but it’s the only option. I want to keep you safe. That’s all. Safe.”

There he goes again. Pushing me away after kissing the life out of me! I angrily shove him away and jump back into the passenger side.

“Stop lying to yourself!” I shout. “You’re not trying to protect me; you’re trying to protect yourself! You’re so scared that you finally have feelings for someone—true feelings, not those you had for Anya. You’re terrified of it, and you’re running from those feelings. You’re running from us!”

“No.” He disagrees. “That’s not true. I want to protect you. I promise that’s the only reason I’m not doing what you want me to.”

“You’re not protecting me. I feel hurt, Damon. I can never be happy if you marry Anya tomorrow. You’re going to destroy my life. Can’t you see that?” I demand. “Are you so blind that you can’t see what you’re doing to me? You’re hurting me, damn it. You’re taking away the one thing in my life that brings me happiness! You’re the only thing that completes me, and you’re marrying someone else!”

He doesn’t say anything, and it angers me further. How could he kiss me so passionately and then let me go a second later? How was he able to let go of me so easily? It was so easy for him, but for me, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

“If you marry her, I will never forgive you,” I threaten him. “I will never speak to you again if you marry that woman. I don’t care what you’ll have to say to me after. I will cut all ties with you, and I will leave that house. I will run away. You’re the only reason I chose to stay in the past; I told you that already. After you betray me, I will have no reason to stay.”

“You’re bluffing,” he says in horror. “You wouldn’t do that. You care about everyone in that house, and you know it. You won’t leave just because I hurt you. You won’t do something so stupid!”

“Take me back home,” I shout. “Take me fucking home!”

“Clarissa—”

I turn my body away from him so that I’m looking out of the window. I refuse to speak to him again after today. He’d made his decision, and now I was making mine. I was giving him what he wanted.

However, I was still not going to let this wedding take place. Anya wasn’t the person she wanted everyone to think that she was. I had to prove to Damon and everyone else that she was evil. I had to go to that house tomorrow when everyone was busy with the wedding. I will find out everything I needed to in that house; I knew it.

I was finally going to figure out who Anya truly was.