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But everything always looked different in the cold light of day. All I could see now was that he’d earned those all-important bragging rights, and he’d done it in fucking style. Because Leon Bradshaw might have touched more than just my body last night.
Snapping my jaw tight, I snatched my gaze away from my reflection and started the car.
***
Mind consumed with the monumental mistake I’d made, I almost forgot what drove me out of the house and into Leon’s bed in the first place.
It hit me like a ton of bricks the second I strode through the door, and I pulled up short.
My eyes rounded, heart stalling at the sight of my aunt standing at the end of the hallway, her arms fastened across her chest and a look of quiet disappointment on her face.
Reality I could no longer escape slammed into me with the impact of a freight train, and my knees buckled. I grasped for the wooden handrail in front of me, my knuckles tight and pale.
“You really worried your mom, Liss,” Bree said, her voice laden down with quiet reproach.
My head came up, eyes hard, because when I felt attacked, I struck back. And Bree had no right to fucking judge me. “You knew,” I muttered. “All this time, you knew, and you said nothing.”
“Liss,” she sighed and looked down.
Uncle Jim and I can’t have kids. We’re looking into adoption, but in the meantime, I just want to make the most of you guys.
I shook my head. Lies. More fucking lies. My gut twisted. It was true they couldn’t have kids, but that wasn’t the reason she was here.
Lies. Fuck her. Fuck them all.
Was it so fucking difficult for anyone to speak the fucking truth?
I’m here because your mom is dying, Liss.
I’m being nice and acting like I care because I want to fuck you, so I can boast about it to the reprobates I call friends.
See, it wasn’t fucking hard. Just tell me straight up so it didn’t feel like the rug was constantly being tugged out from under me.
“Your mom didn’t want to worry you,” Bree murmured, moving down the hall.
“Didn’t want to worry me?” A brusque scoff broke from me. “She’s going to forget me in a few years. What does it matter?”
Bree’s head fell to the side, the hard lines of her face softening as tears pooled behind her lids. “Liss, sweetie, we need to sit down and talk about this properly. It’s late—or early, now, I guess—but we can talk this through with people who can explain everything properly. I know how devastating this is, but we need to focus on the positives.”
My eyes misted, a crushing weight settling on my shoulders. The positives?
“How long, Bree? Really?” My voice cracked, drifting off as I focused every bit of my attention on staving off the tears hazing my gaze.
Bree shifted on her feet. “It could be years, Liss. There’s no reason she can’t—”
“I don’t want the best-case scenario!” I snapped, my head jerking up. “You’ve kept me in the dark long enough. Do you think I didn’t go look it up when I left here? That I didn’t read about how she’ll forget her own fucking name? How she won’t even know how to tie her shoelaces? Stop treating me like an idiot and tell me the truth. I deserve to know. I need to know,” I finished on a heartbroken plea, and hated the weakness ringing in my voice.
She dipped her head, lips pinching. “We don’t know how long exactly, Liss, and that’s the truth. That’s not me playing things down. But yes, her condition will continue to deteriorate. Maybe another handful of years, at best, before she really starts to—” Tears clogged her voice, and she looked down again, blinking.
Before everything that made her who she was would be gone, ripped from her against her will, leaving her a shell of the person she used to be.
A sob lodged in my throat, choking me, strangling me from the inside.
Give me a physical threat, a tangible enemy, something to fight. Anything. Anything but this. I couldn’t fix this. I couldn’t fucking do this… I didn’t know how.
“I don’t want to watch her fade away,” I rasped. “I can’t do that. I won’t be any good at it.” My head shook. “I won’t be any help.”
A firm hand clasped my forearm. “You will, honey. We’ll all be here. We’ll deal with this together.”
