~JOEY

I gaped as Elena shut the door in my face. Shock slammed into me like an avalanche, and I struggled to believe what just happened.

Elena had just thrown me out of her house. A part of me had expected her to try to refuse to see me. I had thought that eventually, she would give in.

But I had been so wrong.

Her refusal was strong, and the sheer weight I her rejection, of her yelling at me and telling me to get out of her house made my chest cave, and I felt...defeated.

Rowan patted ...