Without You (Without You Duet Book 1)

by Marley Valentine

because it’s one thing to know your parents love you, but it’s another to know you’re still never enough.

My mother wanted the best for me—I was her first-born son—and like any parent, she had hopes and dreams and expectations. And like any parent, she was disappointed. I didn’t like the things she wanted me to like, and I didn’t do the things she wanted me to do.

Sometimes I wonder if death really is the worst thing, because being alive and feeling so empty and hollow seems to be much worse.

I just want to unload the hurt and disappointment that has followed me for longer than I can remember and stop feeling so inadequate every time I’m around my family.

I don’t offer him words of comfort, because they’re not what’s going to make him feel better. Trust me, I know. It doesn’t matter how many times someone tells you; if you don’t believe it, it will never be true. Your own insecurities and your lack of self-assurance will win every time.

If I thought my life was lonely and monotonous before, spending the weekend around people, letting myself laugh, smile, and feel has only emphasized just how depressing the way I’m living really is. If I’m not careful, I’m going to wake up one day and I’ll be a forty-year-old man who has nothing to live for, nothing to die for, and absolutely nothing to lose.