AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s not him.
It’s so obviously not him, but for the first time in my life, I’m certain of it, and the relief I feel takes my breath away. But it’s short-lived when I think about how much he’s going to hate me once he discovers the truth. I’m going to be the reason he loses his child. There’s no coming back from that and there’s no way I can stop it from happening. Dropping the wallet in his letter box, I run down the street, desperate to get away from not only Sam, but myself.
Marissa lied to me.
Sam isn’t who I thought he was.
I need answers. Answers to questions I couldn’t just ask him because how can I trust the truth? Hell, I can’t trust anyone, not even myself. I wassosure about him. His past made ruining his life okay. I was able to rationalize what I was doing.
Pacing back and forth, I breathe in the fresh air of the outdoors as the trees sway in the light breeze that sweeps through and shivers the leaves. Guilt consumes me like fire, licking at every inch of my skin as I stop and take a moment to inhale. Taking several deep breaths, I try to calm myself down. Tucking my hair behind my ears, I notice my hands are shaking and silently curse at myself for being so emotional.
I don’t know what to do.
I try to run through the muddled thoughts in my mind, and the one thing I keep coming back to is my brother. I have to keep him safe, and I can’t do that if I break my word to Marissa, so what I want doesn’t matter. It’s never mattered.
God, I wish I could talk to Jake about this, but he would freak out if he knew the whole truth—that I’ve fallen in love with Sam. I never told Jake about all of what I went through. As far as he knows, he stopped things before it went too far. I let him think he saved me because it was easier than seeing the guilt and pity in his face once he knew the truth. I couldn’t stand him feeling sorry for me or worse, blaming himself for not helping me sooner.
Still, I know my brother well enough to know that if Icouldspeak to him about Sam, he would ask me what I wanted to do. I can hear his voice in my mind, clear as day, telling me it’s time I put myself first. I take another deep breath and pull my phone out of my pocket to call Marissa.
This is all her fault. Why would she do this to me? How can she do this to her husband, to the father of her child, who he unconditionally loves more than anything else in the world?
She’s the monster and I need to figure out some way to stop her before it’s too late.
IfI still can.
I’m getting the impression that Marissa holds grudges and doesn’t let anyone go without burning down their lives in the process. A chill races up my spine because she has everything she needs to destroy Jake’s life for good and she won’t hesitate to do it.
The question I need to answer is whose life do I want to save more:
Jake’s or Sam’s?
CHAPTER17
CHLOE
It’s eleven Wednesday morning, but instead of being at school, I’m sitting outside a café, watching my breath create tiny clouds in the air as Marissa sits next to me. The coffee in my hands warms my still trembling fingers and I can’t tell if the caffeine is calming my nerves or making me jittery.
“What’s going on?” Marissa’s suspicious tone tells me she has an idea what’s going on. “You were really cryptic on the phone.”
“You lied to me.”
My accusation doesn’t even make her tense up, a reaction that makes me wonder about her. When she speaks, the meagre warmth in her voice has disappeared, leaving behind a bone-chilling darkness. “I don’t like being called a liar, Chloe. I’d choose my next words very carefully if I were you, especially considering the rather vulnerable position you find yourself in.”
“Sam isn’t Victor’s son. We’ve never even met before,” I rage. “He has no clue who I am.”
How could she lie to me about something so serious? I trusted her with the hell I went through, and she promised to help me. Instead, she lied. How can I ever trust her again? She relaxes slightly and I take full notice of her body language—and old trick that helped me survive foster care. Never thought I’d be suspecting her, but now I wonder if I should have been paying more attention from the start. For a second, I think she’s going to argue with me, but then she just shrugs.
“So, I embellished a little,” she says with a chuckle. “Is that really so bad? He’s a teacher, and he’s sleeping with his student.” She glances at me, her eyebrows scrunching together as I take in just how ugly she really is, inside and out. “He’s a predator, Chloe.” She lowers her voice to a confiding whisper and leans toward me. “He’s done it before, and he’ll no doubt do it again. Think of all those poor future girls you’ll be saving.”
Just the thought of him being with anyone else stings my heart. I don’t want to think of him sleeping with anyone else, let alone another student. And that doesn’t ring true anyway; all this started with him trying to help me, not trying to sleep with me. I practically raped him to make that happen.
Why does any of it matter, anyway?
I’m not special.
I’m betraying him in the worst way and as soon as he finds out, he’ll hate me for it.
I bite down on my lower lip as biting tears fill my eyes. They roll down my cheeks even as I try to blink them back and Marissa pats my knee in what’s supposed to be a comforting gesture…I think.
