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He’s cut off when Zach storms toward the station, his voice loud as he screams, “You!”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Imogen
I step back, bumping into Jackson, who steadies me by grabbing my hips. I should have known there was a chance I’d bump into Zach again. Yet deep down, I know nothing would have prepared me for the lethal glare he’s aiming my way. It’s like our years of friendship meant nothing to him. All I see is hatred and anger when he looks at me.
Nowhere is the friend I lost.
I’ve never been weak minded. Things don’t bother me until they’re forced upon me. If he had been anyone else, I would have given him the same sass I give everyone else who pisses me off. I have no idea why I allow him to have this hold over me.
My mind immediately runs over the conversation I had with Hayden.
You were never yourself around him.
That sentence has been plaguing my mind since she pointed it out. I tried to find reasons as to why she was wrong, but she isn’t. I wasn’t myself. I watched what I ate and what I watched. I never spoke back to him. And I don’t think he is mostly to blame for it. I am too. I had it in my mind that no one wanted me as I am, and I let him mould me into the person I thought men wanted me to be. But we were both wrong.
I can speak up to be heard without being called dramatic. I can eat what I want, and it can be more than a male, without being called fat or a pig. I can drink a beer instead of a glass of wine without being called inelegant. I’ve let years of feeling like I’m not pretty enough, not skinny enough, or good enough, dictate who I should be. When all along, I only needed to be who I am.
“Where are you parked?” Jackson asks, his words harsh as they pull me out of my haze.
I point to the far corner. “Over there.”
“Okay, ignore him,” he warns.
“Are you happy?” Zach yells, trying to push against his dad’s hand to get to me. “Is this what you wanted, Imogen?”
“I didn’t want any of this,” I whisper as we draw closer to each other. The rage in his eyes has the hairs on the nape of my neck standing on end.
His lips twist as he comes to a stop not far from me. His dad is the only person keeping him from getting to me. “You planted that game in there to frame me, and I’m going to tell them that. I’m going to tell them it runs in your family.”
My heart races because it was only five minutes ago I was worried about them thinking I framed him. It wouldn’t be the first time one of us has planted evidence on someone who deserved it. But not this time.
I push back against the hand trying to keep me walking and stop in front of Zach and his parents. “Please stop doing this,” I plead. “Did our friendship mean nothing to you?”
“It meant everything to me before you cheated on me,” he roars, causing his mum to inhale sharply.
“For the love of God, I never cheated on you,” I scream. “I broke up with you because you were beginning to act like a control freak and I’d had enough. You never met me half way with anything. If you didn’t get your way, you would go days without talking to me just to punish me. It didn’t work. All it did was drain me. You constantly tried to put a wedge between me and my family, knowing what they mean to me. You think you are better than everyone else but you aren’t.” I shake my head, seeing I’m not reaching him. I’m not reaching the boy who was once my favourite person. “We all bleed the same and we’ll all eventually die. When I look at the world, I see billions of people living a life I’m not a part of. I’m fascinated by it. But when you look at the world, you just see you and what you need. We are two very different people, Zach. I was just the first one to see it. Or maybe you did before me, which is why you constantly tried to squash who I am.”
“Maybe we should all calm ourselves down,” Lindy announces, holding her hands up. “There’s clearly been a misunderstanding, and we can all work together to fix it.”
I meet his mother’s gaze. Her greyish hair is pinned back in a low bun, enhancing her cheekbones. For a woman in her sixties, she’s beautiful. She’s also kind, loving, and dotes on her son to the point I think it caused more damage. She and Colin were just getting used to the fact they would never conceive, but then in her early forties, she got pregnant with Zach. They see him as their miracle baby, and no one can fault them for that.
Still… I meet her gaze, knowing she will be upset with what I need to say. “Lindy, your son came to my work under the pretence he wanted to make things right between us. While there, he stole company property, knowing the legal consequences I would face. He knew because he was the one who made the contract make sense before I had to sign it.”
“But you loved each other. You were going to move in together,” she whispers, clutching her husband’s arm.
“This is bullshit,” Zach snaps. “Mum, don’t listen to her.”
I shake my head sadly as I notice my dad approaching. “No, we weren’t. And honestly, even before he stopped me from taking a call that was a family emergency, it wasn’t going to happen,” I reveal, briefly closing my eyes. “Your son was my best friend. I loved him as a friend. But he never even respected me. He wanted me to be someone I wasn’t, and for years I let him, and that’s on me.”
“I… I don’t know what to say,” she breathes. “This can’t be true.”
“Because it’s not,” Zach snaps. “She’s making shit up.”
I meet the eyes of the boy who once meant a lot to me. “You constantly belittled me. You did it in a way that others thought it was a compliment. You never once asked what I liked or disliked because you already had answers of your own for me. You were constantly trying to control every aspect of my life. You would tell me what to eat. And I like food, Zach. Love it. But you were constantly telling people I didn’t like it or I wasn’t hungry. You spoke for me when I can speak for myself. It’s my fault it went on for so long. I let you have that control over me because I desperately wanted it to work between us. I really did. And I think deep down, you knew this was over a long time ago, but you kept me in your grip to get what you wanted. You had me so wrapped up in what you’ve done for me that I never stopped to think about what I did for you. I didn’t see what you were doing. Every time I went to break up with you, you did or said something to change my mind.”
“Son, please tell me this isn’t true,” his mother pleads.
