AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ALLIE
Iended up staying at Poison’s place last night, not wanting to come home and witness any more of drunk Harlan. He wasn’t a pretty sight, and neither was him hitting Jace right in his pretty face. I wanted to hit Jace in the face sometimes, too, but I didn’t act on it, and I wasn’t some murderous sicko father.
Only Jace’s car was in the driveway when Kai pulled up on his motorcycle. I had basically begged him all morning to take me back home because Jace hadn’t returned any of my calls.
When Kai parked, he lit a cigarette and nodded to the house. “You want me to stay?”
“No.” I glared at him and hopped off the bike, needing to get away from that disgusting stench of cigarette. “I’m fine,” I said.
He sped off, the motorcycle louder than a damn thunderstorm.
I turned back to the front door and tried hard not to hyperventilate.
Breathe, Allie, just breathe. Harlan isn’t home.
After persuading myself to get this over with, I walked into the house.
“Jace!” I shouted, racing to his room. “Jace!”
No response.
“Are you home?” I asked, keeping my voice steady even though it was about to falter.
I pushed his bedroom door open. Unlike last night, there was no blood, no hole in the wall, no shattered beer bottles either. It was almost like nothing had ever happened. My stomach tightened in knots, and I frowned as I gently grasped his bedsheets.
Where the hell is he? Why isn’t he here? Is he okay?
I walked to my room and stood still when I saw a Fendi shopping bag sitting on my bed. My brows furrowed slightly as I peered inside of it, seeing a card that had Love, Harlan on the blank side.
Inside, there was an emerald-green crocodile-leather Fendi bag that must’ve cost at least thirty thousand dollars or more. The only reason I knew that was because Nicole—Jace’s stupid fling—wouldn’t stop gossiping about it when he had bought her a similar one for Christmas last year.
I felt dirty, holding the bag, knowing that he had only given me this to make up for last night.
After thrusting it back into the shopping bag, I threw it to the side of the room and pretended like it didn’t exist. I didn’t want it to exist. I didn’t want any of this to exist. I just wanted things to be good, safe, and normal again. Now, I was going to have to watch over my shoulder, see if Mom was being abused too, try to find a way for us both to get out of this shitty life that she seemed to love.
Instead of spending another minute despising the damn thing, I tore open my closet door to find my entire closet turned upside down with thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes, twenty new pairs of shoes, and purses that I would never ever use.
I clenched my jaw to stop myself from crying. All the clothes Dad had bought me, all those little gifts from him were gone. Not in boxes. Not in the trash. Not in the back of my closet. Gone for fucking good.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head.
I grasped his dog tags around my neck and held on to the wall, so I didn’t double over in painful heartbreak. Besides the chain around my neck, those were the only damn things that I had left of him. After a drunk driver had ripped Dad from my life, I had those gifts to remember him by.
Now … now, I fucking didn’t.
My heart pounded against my chest, and I forced myself to take deep breaths for the second time in the past two days. If I didn’t, I would have a panic attack, alone, here in the house. After I took ten deep breaths, air was getting back in my lungs.
“I can’t believe this,” I whispered, tears racing down my cheeks.
Anger built up inside of me, and I found myself tearing the clothes off the hangers so forcefully that the hangers snapped in half and littered the ground of my room.
Fuck Mom for ever agreeing to marry Harlan.
I hated that man more than I hated anyone, and I hated her for ruining my life.
After destroying my closet, I grabbed the backpack in the back of it. I needed a getaway bag, if anything ever happened. Hell, I needed a bag for tonight because … I couldn’t stay here. I needed to get my shit and leave, drive Jace’s car around Redwood like a maniac to try to find him.
He couldn’t have gotten far.
