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JACKSONVILLE???
There was a panic attack coming on. Hard and fast. I couldn’t get the air in or out fast enough. An acute pain shooting through my chest.
Breathe.
I couldn’t be going back home with Liam.
Breathe, Jamie
He couldn’t meet my father.
Breathe.
A disaster was about to happen.
Breathe.
Holy, holy, holy, fuck!
Chapter 26
Jamie
10 years ago
I was in the dark again.
My nails scraping on wood, praying someone would hear me. But no one ever did.
As the years went by, I should have become used to this. Used to being locked in tight spaces that would quickly run out of breathing air. Some days I wished it did, and I would just fade into a sound sleep that took all the pain away.
I had screamed my lungs out, and my throat was burning and raw from my despair, but not even then did he come for me.
How long it took before I saw the light of day again depended on the space he used. He would never cross that line and risk being caught for murder. I had come to that realization when I was eight or maybe nine. I mourned that strange moral line every minute I spent in these closed spaces.
Even now, at fifteen, I had no clue what his trigger was. The only pattern I found was that, around my birthday, it got significantly worse.
“Please stop.”
“No. Not the closet, please.”
“I’ll shut up. Please don’t lock me in the trunk.”
And the one that hurt the most, “No, Daddy, please. I’ll be good, I promise I’ll be good.”
But there was no way I could ever be good in his eyes, no matter the size of my halo.
One day I’ll get out of this box. One day I’ll erase this version of myself and be a new Jamie. One day I’ll have someone who loves me and maybe find a way to love myself, too.
Chapter 27
Liam
I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.
This world was filled with assholes, but that fucker put most of them to shame.
When I saw Jamie running, my immediate instinct was to follow her. I knew she would be broken, and I wanted to help her pick up the pieces and mend her. Fuck, I’d do it alone if she wasn’t capable. I wanted to be that for her.
