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JACE
Allie pulled away and stared at me with wide, confused eyes. I sat there—completely vulnerable—and held her in my arms, hoping that she believed me because I needed someone on my side. But the more time that passed, the stupider I felt about letting it slip out of my mouth.
Why would she believe the one person who had lied to her for two years? Why would she believe the man who had dumped her for Nicole not once, but twice? Why would she believe me after all the shit I had put her through? She probably thought that this was another one of my lies to get her to feel bad for me.
“Jace,” she said, voice above a whisper.
I tore my gaze away from her, picked her up, and placed her beside me on the bed. After throwing my head into my hands, I shook my head and cursed to myself. What the fuck was wrong with me? I couldn’t do anything right.
“Forget I said anything,” I snapped, standing up and hurrying to the door. I didn’t know where the hell I was going to go, but I needed to get away from this hellhole. Maybe getting out of this town and going to Michigan for football would do me some fucking good.
Just as I was about to rip the door open, Allie wrapped her arms around me from behind and pulled me tight to her. She inched her way around my body until she stood directly in front of me. Head buried into my chest, she tensed in my hold. “Please, don’t go,” she whispered, staring up at me through glasses stained with tears. “I believe you, Jace.”
One moment passed. Then two.
So much weight felt like it had suddenly fallen off my shoulders, and I could breathe again.
“You believe me?” I asked, doubting everything.
She nodded as more tears raced down her cheeks. “I believe you.”
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her tight to me, clutching on to her harder than I ever had before—even after Mom’s death. I’d tried to stay strong. I’d fucking tried hard not to cry in front of her.
But nobody had ever believed me.
I had thought too much about Mom’s death these past few days, and … and after the two longest, hardest years of my life, I could finally be myself with Allie again.
My body trembled back and forth, and I doubled over into her. Allie wrapped her arms around me, holding me up, and pushed me to the bed. She crawled onto it, resting her body against the headboard, and pulled me up toward her.
I lay between her legs with my head on her stomach and wrapped my arms around her body. She stroked my hair gently, like she always used to, and lay there with me as I sobbed into her shirt.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m so fucking sorry. I hate myself more and more for it every fucking day. I don’t deserve you. You deserve someone who cherishes you, who gives you the world.”
She wiped tears from her cheeks with her thumb. “You are my world, Jace. You have nothing to be sorry for,” she whispered. “But why? Why did you hide this from me? Why didn’t you think you could tell me this?”
I stared up at her and pushed a couple more tears away, hurting so fucking bad because of what I had done to us. It wasn’t Dad’s fault. It was my fault. I had been shitty to her as my way to protect her. At least, I’d thought I was protecting her.
“Because when I learned that he had killed her, I found out that he was dating your mother. I told the principal and the police chief, even the fucking therapist,” I said. “Nobody believed me. If they did, my dad paid off everyone to turn a blind eye. I’ve been so alone. I wanted your mother to fucking hate me, so she would break it off with him before they got married. I didn’t want you to worry about anything. I wanted to protect you.”
She stayed quiet for a long time.
“Do you really believe me?” I whispered, almost unable to believe her myself. I had been alone for so long, so fucking long.
She nodded and tugged on the ends of my hair. “Yes, I believe you. I’m just in shock. Your dad said she died of cancer.”
“My dad is a fucking liar.”
“Why would he kill her?” she asked me, confusion written all over her face.
“Because she cheated on him with one of my coaches from pee wee football. They had an affair for years before my father found out that she was pregnant with someone else’s child. And when he did, he flipped and murdered her in cold blood. I found the pictures of it on his laptop. A bullet straight through her head, her eyes so empty.”
My entire body hurt, thinking about it. I had suppressed the thought of those cold eyes for so long. I missed her. I really fucking missed her, and I didn’t want Allie to feel the same pain that I did, especially after her father had died.
“Is my mom in danger?” she asked, lips quivering. “Will he try to kill her too?” Tears fell from her eyes. “I don’t want my mom to die. She’s the only family that I have left.”
I scurried up in the bed and wrapped her up in my arms. “She won’t die. I promise that I won’t let him kill her. Poison found me some information that the courts can’t fucking deny. I need time and a plan to come out with it, so he doesn’t throw me in jail again before I can prove it to everyone.”
Allie clung on to me for dear life, pulling me tight. She buried her face into my side and stared up at me. “I promise to stand by your side through all of this,” she whispered. “As long as you don’t keep anything from me anymore.”
I tucked some hair behind her ear. “No more secrets. No more lies. No more hurt. I’m going to love you this time, Allie. I promise you that I will protect you with my life.”
