CAMERON

I hate him so much as I hate my father. It is intense.

"God knows I love you."

Blood rushes in my veins to my fists; it aches to collide with his mouth, to have him lose all his teeth so he will shut up.

But just when I grapple with resisting, Erin opens her mouth, "You just aren't giving him all, Darling. He has to find it somewhere else. And still, he says he loves you, don't you?" She turns to Jake, but he doesn't answer; he silently pleads with a stricken Amy, with crocodile tears in his gaze. "You are like a sister to him. Take it in mind that I like you, and we will protect you in this city. You are not alone, Amy. We will never abandon you. You will be an auntie to Sesame." Erin rubs her stomach.

I gasp, and my eyes close. I can't imagine how Amy feels. I just can't describe it in relation. A sense of helplessness has engulfed me; it's as if every word and action from Jake and Erin, causing Amy pain, is a direct assault on my soul.

"God will punish you. I have nothing to say, but I know God will avenge what you did to me." Amy chokes on her tears. "My mom was right about you from the start. Nothing good was ever going to come out of you. You just happened to be my first heartbreak and a huge waste of time. I hate you, Jake. I hate you." She turns away, running, and it's then I see her face fully. My breathing accelerates.

Jake begins to chase after her, "Amy?" He calls, but for what?

All this time he has a full view of the devastation on her face, but he goes on adding salt to her wound.

"Do not even dare." I shove him back with everything in me as he approaches the door she left through, and he crashes back against the wall.

I want to hit him, hurt him, but it won't level up to the inner cut he stabbed in Amy, so she was right; only God would punish him.

"Cameron, I didn't want it to happen like this. You know it, man. You know it." He mutters, sniffling. A tear rolls down his eye.

He can never deceive me about being a good person to Amy. His methods of living with a partner are evaluable; it can be discerned and measured that he is a selfish person who doesn't care about others' feelings.

What's more disheartening is that Amy consistently considered him and his rights in their relationship.

"I will never stand by a cheater. I used to look up to you as a clever man, but now I have no respect and regard for you." I grumble in disgust as he stares back, regretfully. "I will kick your ass, but you already are miserable. So I will send your things over; just do not come near my house again." People like him make me sin, and I am trying not to for a while.

"Cameron?" He calls as I turn towards the door to get Amy.

I glance over my shoulder, finding him back on his foot.

No! He can't go after her. I won't let him.

"If you want to keep your legs and hands to your body, you will just go back and lay there and let your baby mama continue to feed you whatever that had you damaged your beautiful relationship with your fiancée... I mean ex-fiancée. Apparently." I nodded my brows at him before shutting the door.

Outside, that's when the horror weighs upon me in pounds as I look up and down the street in panic. There is nothing like Amy's figure there.

Fear overwhelms me. I think maybe she is in the car. The passenger door was left open by me; I looked through it, but it was empty inside.

My heart is beating destructively in my chest; I can't despair. I have to find her while she's in this situation. Maybe I should go back inside that confining house and get her location from Jake's phone, but then again, I remember her phone is in the car.

I'm fucking finished.

"Fuck!" I kick the wheel and rest my head in my hands by the hood to think.

There is this small quaking sob that registers in my hearing. I jolt up, looking around; it is coming from the rear of the Honda behind my car.

It is her.

Swallowing, I go to check cautiously. My steps are stealthy. I have never had to see a girl this heartbroken my whole life, but here I am for the first time, and I will give anything to make it stop if I can.

There she is, balled up on the ground, hiding against the SUV there. The sight of her vulnerability stabs at my core and the overwhelming desire to shield her from any more pain simmers in every fiber of my being.

Not knowing what to say or do, I lower until I am sitting next to her; she is staring sightlessly into the distance, hugging her knees to her chest.

"You are right, the phrase 'I love you' Is the biggest scam, Cam." She whispers, sounding exhausted.

"Remember we decided maybe we were both wrong?" I try to convince her, and she sniffles.

"There is no living proof of what I stand for. I know now that love is painful and exhausting. It is a storm in our heads we personally live that comes with excitement and when it is over, it leaves us with nothing left. Not even our sanity." She swallows and wipes her eyes, and continues to hug her knees. "I am already exhausted, Cam. And still, I am expected to find a husband and have a family after feeling this. How?"

END OF BOOK 1

A/N

This book is a 3-in-1 installment and the only one in the D/B series with sequels. It will soon be divided into three separate parts.