The Bond Between Us

Chapter Five

Amelia walked inside her house with her heart in her throat. She would be lying if she said her wasn't scared out of her mind. With various worst case scenarios playing in her head, she made her way through the house. She walked into the living room and found him passed out on the couch. Relief coursed through her body as she made her way to their bedroom and started packing. She grabbed everything she could fit into her bag. She had grabbed the biggest bag she had as wasn't even bothering to fold. Everything was just being shoved in.

She was almost done when Karl walked into the room.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Karl grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground. "Are you packing? Were you planning on leaving me?! You can't leave me! You won't leave me." He grabbed her by the hair again and dragged her to the kitchen.

"Why do you care if I leave? You don't care about me! You have made that very clear." Amelia shouted at him.

"Shut up!" He shouted at her, loosening his grip on her hair. She took that opportunity to push him off her.

"No! I deserve to know why I have been treated like this! I did nothing to you so why do you do this? I deserve to know why I have spent all these years being treated like the dirt beneath your shoes. You owe me that."

He looked at her with fury blazing in his eyes. "I hurt you because I can. Because I want to. Looking at you makes me so angry!"

"But why!"

"Because you look like her!" He screamed and she flinched. But she wasn't done. Not yet.

"Who? She whispered. "Who do i look like?"

Karl sighed sat down on the couch in the living room.

"Like my dead soulmate. Except she hadn't been my soulmate in a while. Her's changed. But I only found out when she died. And you look so much like her. Looking at you reminds me of her. And I get so so angry everytime i look at your horribly beautiful body." Amelia gazed at the pitiful man sat before her. He looked so weak and defeated that Amelia couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "Just leave. Get out of my sight before I change my mind."

Amelia stared at his shriveled up form and decided that things could have gone a lot worse. She quickly grabbed her bags and left. Walking out of that house for the last time felt like a huge weight off her shoulders. She was free.

As she made her way back to the coffee shop, Amelia decided to check her wrist one last time but the name on her wrist was not the one she was expecting. It no longer said Karl Evans. It changed.

As soon as she walked inside, Nathan rushed forward and crushed her in a bear hug. She just hung there in shock.

"How did everything go" Nathan ushered her into her seat and sat down in front of her.

"Um, it was okay. He was in there and he did react badly to me leaving but he ended up letting me go. He talked about why he hated me so much. Apparently he had a soulmate before me who turned out to not be his soulmate and basically lied to him until she died and he found out the truth. He hates me because I look like her." Amelia explained everything in a far away voice. She felt like she was detached from her body. Nothing felt real.

"Okay but why are we glossing over the fact that he was there? Did he hurt you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. My scalp is a little sore from him grabbing my hair and dragging me into the kitchen but other than that, I'm fine." Nathan let out a sigh of relief at her words.

"Good. So is that everything that happened?"

"No. There is one other thing."

"Well? What is it?"

"My soulmark changed. It doesn't say Karl Evans anymore."

"What?!" Amelia was nothing but numb as Nathan grabbed her wrist and gazed at the name on her skin. "I don't understand. Why now?"

"I don't know." Amelia shrugged. She was just as shocked as he was. If not more because the name that replaced Karl Evans wasn't some stranger. It was Nathan Cox. Her best friend. Her Nathan. But never really hers. Not like that. Despite how absolutely in love with him she has been since middle school. He had never been hers. Even now that his name adorned her skin, she still knew that he would never be hers. She had never seen his soulmark but she knew that it wasn't her. How could it be with all the bad luck she has had her whole life. If Amelia had learned anything over the years it was this: no one would ever love her. Why would anyone like the loser who sat in the back of the class all of high school and drew on her jeans?

No, she knew better now.