AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d never seen Kayla so mad before and nerves took hold of me. I couldn’t even begin to guess what had made her so angry, especially on a non-school day she’d spent with her brother.
Jude and I got out of the car, and Kayla straightened.
“Hey honey, what’s up?”
Kayla pulled an envelope o
ut of her pocket and held it up in the air without explanation. Didn’t need to explain. I was close enough to realise the handwriting belonged to Taylor.
That girl really loved to write.
“What does it say?” I asked, letting out a weary sigh. I’d read enough of Taylor’s ramblings to last a lifetime.
Kayla eyed Jude like she wished he’d disappear. Instead of being offended he gave her a small grin. “Come on in. I’ll make you both a drink then get out of your way.”
True to his word, Jude made hot chocolate for us before leaving us alone. We sat at the kitchen table, holding our mugs and watching the steam rise in swirls. I didn’t want to ask about Taylor’s letter. I wanted to fling it out to sea like I did with her journal. Whatever was inside had caused Kayla to rush to my house and hurt her enough to make her cry.
“What happened today, Kayla?”
She slid the envelope across the table. “I found this in the mailbox. Taylor must have mailed it yesterday, before-” Kayla paused. “Before.”
“You really want me to read this, huh?”
“Yeah. I need to know if the things she said are true, and then I have one more thing to ask. But read first.”
If Kayla was a little older and I thought she’d understand, I’d have refused, and explained all the reasons why I didn’t want to hear anything else from Taylor. Her green eyes, wide with desperation, wouldn’t let me back away. I loved her too much to ignore something that obviously meant so much to her.
I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, holding my breath, braced to read more unflattering words about me.
My eyes scanned over the writing, chest tightening with every word. Everything I’d told her in confidence about my past had been laid out on the page but with some major Taylor-style embellishments, including how I’d stolen money from my foster families, lived on the streets as a hooker, and how I met Jude while trying to steal his car, but he felt sorry for me so he took me in instead of handing me over to the cops. She conveniently left out the part where two guys tried to rape me.
And then the final blow.
Bree is a nice person but I don’t think she’s getting to know you for the right reasons. She told me she’s in love with your brother and she’s trying to get close to you so she can get closer to him.
Oh, Taylor was smart. All the time I’d worried she would expose my secrets to the wives of Jude’s teammates but where would the fun be in that? Most of them had made up their minds anyway. A letter to those people wouldn’t have changed anything. But telling Jesse I loved him and trying to make me sound like a psycho to Kayla? That was the kind of damage I should have been afraid of. She’d attacked me right in the places it would hurt most, targeting the people I’d grown closest to. The people Taylor knew I’d relied on over the last few weeks.
Ha. Her journal entry said she’d always liked me. What a joke. She didn’t treat me any better than she treated the people she hated. She wanted to take from me the way she’d tried to take from Radleigh.
She’s gone now. It’s over.
Except it wasn’t. I still had to clear up the mess she left me with.
“Bree, is everything in the letter true?”
I placed the letter down on the table and slowly slid it back towards her. “What do you think?”
Kayla’s gaze shifted from the piece of paper to me as if she hadn’t expected a question. “I remember you said you moved around a lot when you were younger. I didn’t ask why because it’s none of my business.” She shrugged. “I don’t believe you were a hooker. You told me you were a virgin when you got married and I don’t think you lied about that.”
“I’ve never lied about anything. If you want to know the whole truth about my past, I’ll tell you. There are so few people I’ve trusted with it. The list is real short. Mostly, nobody asks because where I came from. I don’t think it matters as much as where I am now.”
“Yeah? Well, I wouldn’t have believed any of it if I hadn’t seen you trying to kiss Jesse yesterday.”
She spat the words at me and every one of them hit me hard in my chest because that was all me. The only part of this I couldn’t blame on Taylor and knowing Kayla saw only strengthened Taylor’s bitchy claims.
I ran my hand through my hair, leaning my forehead down on the table. “I’m sorry you saw.”
“Me too.”
