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“But that’s not even just a city. That’s a massive city. Christ, they’ll eat a small-town girl like you alive out there!”
“Gee, thanks for the vote of fucking confidence.” He’s got my hackles raised now.
“Izzy, you can’t—”
“I’m pretty sure you don’t have a say in the matter,” I interject angrily. “You forfeited that three goddamn years ago.”
There it is. The hurt and fury I’d pent up over the years, finally directed at the man who caused it.
“I didn’t—” Jace seems tongue tied, unsure what to say, or do. “Christ, Izzy, how have I not heard about this before now?”
“No one knows. Just Emily. And judging by your reaction, I should’ve kept it that way.”
His hands are raking through his hair like the movement is keeping his somehow grounded. There’s a sense of inner turmoil rolling off him in waves, which seems hardly justified to me considering he’s the one who left me here, not the other way around. “When?” he asks finally.
“When what?”
“When do you leave?” His eyes sweep around the room again, as though the answer lies amidst the chaotic mess.
“Next week,” I reply, pushing by him to get a coffee mug from the cupboard behind me. “And, frankly, the sooner, the fucking better.”
Chapter Six
Jace
She may as well have socked me in the gut with the weight those two little words held.
I’m moving.
“Isabelle, you can’t move next week.” It’s blunt and to the point, but it’s the fucking truth.
“The hell I can’t,” she snaps back, glaring at me before purposely turning her back on me to pour herself a cup of coffee. “I don’t know who you think you are—”
“You know exactly who I am,” I remind her.
She shoves the coffee pot back onto its base, then carefully sets the mug down. Her hands are trembling slightly, although from anger or another emotion, I can’t tell. “Wrong,” she advises me. “I knew who you were. Once upon a time. But you destroyed that silly fairy tale, didn’t you?”
Her eyes are blazing. In all the years I’ve known her, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such blatant ferocity coming from those depths.
“You don’t get a say, Jace,” she continues. “I’ve been in this godforsaken town my entire life. It’s time to get out of it. Away from the bullshit, away from all the memories…” She blinks, then locks her gaze on mine. “Away from you, and every memory of you.”
I swallow down the bile rising in my throat. It sickens me to think she hates me enough to leave her hometown. Our hometown. “Izzy, you obviously didn’t believe me back then, but I told you...I told you I would come back for you—”
“No.” She barks the word at me, pointing a finger in my face. “Don’t you dare, Jace Andrews. You didn’t say that. What you said was, ‘You deserve better than the life I can give you, Izzy.’ I should know, believe me. Those fucking words have haunted me for three goddamn years.”
Another punch to the gut without even touching me. “Wait. I did say that—”
“You’re damn right you did!” She shook her head. “And over a fucking text, no less.”
“Wait, no. Izzy, shit.” My thoughts are jumbled, and I can’t seem to make sense of them. “You did deserve better than what I could give you back then—”
“And I deserve more than you now, Jace.” Her fiery gaze is back on me, and I’m convinced I can see the pulse beating wildly in her throat. “You came back too late,” she adds. “Way too late.”
Something’s not adding up. But, unfortunately, I can’t think straight. I’m losing her all over again, and the realization is slicing through me with the red-hot pain of a knife. I can’t lose her again. I won’t.
Isabelle must think I’ve chosen not to respond, and she averts her gaze, reaching for her coffee cup on the counter. I take my chances, reaching out in one foul swoop to pull her to me, crashing my mouth down onto hers. The desperate need to remind her of what we are and what we’ve always been together is all-consuming. I kiss her like my life depends on it, and in a way it does. The life I want—the life I came back for—is slipping through my hands.
For the briefest second, I feel Izzy succumb to my kiss, her knees buckling as she leans into me despite her surprise. But it’s over just as quickly as it began, and she pushes me away, hard.
