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“John, I need to see if she’s okay.”
“Go.” He jerks his head and allows me to run after her. I hear Tom’s door shut, but that doesn’t cover all the yelling coming from John.
I hit the door with my bad shoulder, running against the searing pain. “Allie, wait!”
Chapter51
Lucas
“Allie, stop!” Since when is she an Olympic sprinter in the same heels that she tripped in this morning? My shoulder screams in pain while I try to catch up to her, and she’s already halfway to the car.
“Allie! Just wait, dammit!” I reach for her arm, and she whips her body around, nearly crashing into me.
She lets out a frustrated sob toward the sky and pinches the bridge of her nose. After a few ragged breaths, she looks at me with genuine pain in her eyes. “He lied to me, Lucas. He covered it up for Mark just like everyone else.”
The way Allie looks at me sends the shoulder pain to the back of my mind. The tears filling her eyes spill over, painting her cheeks as they fall. Her life makes little sense right now, and I get it. She doesn’t know what to do. “Allie, he wanted to tell you. Trust me, he did. That was the first thing he said. Your dad said it hurt him to keep a secret from you.”
She nods and wipes her nose. “I know.” Allie shrugs away from me when I reach for her. “Stop, Lucas. I need to tell you something, and then I need to leave.” She makes a whimpering sound and clears her throat.
Leave? Where does she think she’s going to go?
“Allie, he was protecting you. And who cares if he lied? Mark isn’t your dad, no matter what—”
“That’s not…” Allie sobs into her hands while her shoulders shake. “Lucas, oh my god. It’s so bad. All of it. He’s part of everything.”
I’m not the smartest guy, but it sounds like she’s talking about something else. I’m not sure what would be more important right now than her dad keeping a secret like this her whole life.
The lunch bell rings in the background and students flood the halls. Quickly, we’re surrounded by screams and laughter and zero privacy. “Allie, let’s go talk somewhere. I can get you lunch and we can talk about it.”
What the hell am I going to tell her? I don’t have the slightest idea. However, she seems like she just needs to cry right now, and I can hold her while she does.
“No,” she says with a firm tone. Her face morphs into some ball of anger, like she used to get around me at the beginning of summer. Only, it’s not in the cute way.
“Excuse me?”
“No, Lucas. Listen to me.” She straightens her shoulders and wipes her eyes. “Mark. It’s all Mark.”
I check over our shoulders in case the slimy fuck is somewhere nearby. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had us followed. “What about him?” Other than he’s a douche-prick that could use a cannonball to the mouth.
His name is just offensive to me now. I like dirty words, but his name is just filthy.
She swallows and lowers her voice while students rush past us. “He threatened me, Lucas.”
“What?” Students passing by stop and stare when I raise my voice. I grab her wrist and march us out of the halls and away from all the listening ears. When I round the corner of the library building, Allie leans back against the wall with her arms crossed. “What do you mean? He threatened you?”
She may not mean to, but by covering her face with her hands, she is going to turn me into a violent person. I’ve seen her upset before, but this is different. If she doesn’t tell me, I’m going to find Mark.
“Allie.” I grip her wrists and pull her hands down. “Either you tell me, or I’ll find out for myself. Hethreatenedyou? What the hell did he say to you?” First flea-bag Ted grabs her arm, and now Mark is threatening her? Fuck no.
Allie stammers her way through a response, and it only feeds my anger. “No–well, yeah, but–”
I don’t have time for this. I need to call Joel and she can give a statement or something. Fuck if I know how this shit works. “What did Mark say to you?”
She licks her lips and without missing a beat, she tells me and I’m barely holding on to my sanity by a thread.
“He made it sound like if I didn’t leave with Ted, he would force me out of here.” She arches her brow and scoffs. “He also said that he hand-selected you and planned out your future with Katrina because everybody just loves you.” She rolls her glossy eyes at that last part.
He wants me as an accessory to his family tree. Lovely. My hands are trembling with a need to hit something, and Allie manages to further this need to hit someone.
