| Like Daggers Piercing Flesh

𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋

DANIEL

I took a deep breath after swallowing my second glass of bourbon. The memories felt like daggers piercing the flesh of my heart over and over again. I hated that they still held so much power over me. After all the time that had passed, the memories still tortured me. She still tortured me.

"It's a little early for a drink, don't you think?"

I looked up at Antonio, who took a seat across from me by the bar. "You want one?"

"Fuck, yes."

I snorted and poured my brother a drink while refilling mine.

That was another thing I hated about all this — everyone knew. Everyone knew who Layla was to me, and what it did to me when she left and it was all my fault. For months after, I was nothing but a walking corpse who lived on alcohol. A shell of myself. I spent my days either drunk, hungover, or thoroughly fucked. Sex numbed the pain. It still did. And the more, the merrier. Gang banging and orgies while drinking myself into a stupor were the only goal I had for