Page 58 of Into The Light

The crowd shouted again, and Jeff dropped the microphone and started off the stage, moving toward us wearing an expression filled with horror.

“Aiden... I... I can’t believe... Did that just happen? I feel so vindicated.” And I did. Watching Jeff blow up his fraudulent career had been so cathartic. He didn’t deserve to be there. And now the rest of the world knew it, too.

“What did I just do?” Jeff mumbled when he arrived at Sheena’s side. He reached out to wrap his arms around her, but she scoffed and sidestepped his embrace.

“Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Me,” she snapped. “You and I are done. You are over and the fuck if I’m dating you if you’re just some schmuck in a garage band.”

“Ready for the rest of your present?” Aiden asked.

My head nodded before giving it another thought. He pulled me to her side and looked her square in the eyes.

“Sheena. Listen to me. You will not leave Jeff. Ever. You wanted him, you got him. You will stay at his side when he is a washed-up musician playing for pennies at dive bars. You will stay at his side even when he cheats on you, which he will, repeatedly. You will sit in misery at his side for the rest of your days because you don’t deserve to go off and live a happy life. You’re a shitty person, Sheena and this is the life you deserve.”

“This is the life I deserve,” she responded in a robotic tone.

“Did I miss anything?” Aiden turned to me.

I stood stunned at his side shaking my head before the smile pulled up on my lips. “I’m pretty sure you covered it all. And then some.” I chuckled while I watched Sheena and Jeff stand awkwardly beside one another, the wet spot in his pants now impossible to ignore.

“Why did I do that?” Jeff mumbled, searching first Sheena and then me when she didn’t respond.

“Was anything you said up there untrue?” I asked him.

“No. It’s all true.” He dipped his head.

I no longer felt even an ounce of pity for him. There were far more deserving people who could take his place in the spotlight. People who’d earned it and had worked for it. “Then you don’t deserve this, Jeff. None of it. Go home to Milwaukee. Try to be a better person.”

“I’m ruined,” Jeff mumbled.

“Goodbye, Jeff,” I said and felt the weight of my anger leave my body. The hurt, betrayal, and humiliation poured off me in waves. For a moment I closed my eyes and relished the sweetness of the release.

“Are you ready to go, Emilia?” Aiden whispered.

I opened my eyes to find him staring at me, his eyes searching my own. Without warning, I flung myself forward and threw myself into his arms. He wrapped his around me and pulled me tight to his chest, pressing his chin to the top of my head and enveloping me in a cocoon of safety and security.

“Thank you, Aiden. Thank you,” I whispered.

“You’re welcome, Emilia. Happy birthday.”

“No girl in the world has had a happier one. Ever.”

“Well, then my work is done, and I need to get us home before the sun comes up and I turn into a pumpkin.”

“A pumpkin?” I asked, pulling back enough to look up into his face.

“Well, a charred and burning pumpkin.”

My face lit up with recognition and I grimaced. “Yeah, that. Then let’s go.”

I glanced to Jeff one last time. He wore the weight of his choices plain on his face, and the band he’d betrayed now leaving the stage and heading his way only deepened the worry lines in his worn skin.

“Good luck with that,” Aiden said to him before slinging an arm around my shoulder and leading me away.

Jeff watched us walk away, and I took a deep breath and left the last of my anger behind me with him. He’d broken me... or tried to, but tonight Aiden had helped me patch up the last of the cracks. When we made it around the corner, I allowed myself to explode with the emotions I couldn’t even begin to process.

“Did that just happen, Aiden?” I laughed, hopping up and down. “Did you seriously just mind control him into saying all that?”

Aiden nodded and chuckled. “I told him to walk on stage and admit all the terrible things he did to you and his bandmates to get here. The rest was up to him. Although, I meant for him to admit what he did to his previous bandmates. It hadn’t occurred to me he had also wronged his current bandmates. That was just a welcome surprise.”