Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“I immediately told Dom and Lily that it was okay,” I said. “I told them I wanted them to be happy. Reassured them, over and over. And then I told Dom that I’d done something very bad to Brody.”
“Your fucking police chief friend, in the dirt,” Max said.
“It wasn’t a good situation,” I agreed. “I knew Brody did have power over me, but I also knew I had so much on him, over the years and years of our friendship. It was like a stalemate. After he woke up in a hospital, I was certain he’d say something to someone. But he didn’t share a fucking peep. Each day passed without me knowing if I’d be arrested at any moment’s notice. When Lily got the invite to a wedding back down in Tennessee… I knew it was the right move to leave.”
Max pulled in a long breath. “You came to Tennessee on a fucking whim, because Lily got invited to a wedding?”
“It was all we could do,” I said. “Lily still had to keep up the act with me, for Dad’s payments. Dad never found out about her and Dom, although I lived in fear every day that Brody would show them to him. Tennessee was the best option. What neither of us realized was that Dad would cut off her payments and terminate her contract as soon as we left.”
“Does that mean Brody showed him the photos?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t think so. I think Dad has other reasons. Maybe he just doesn’t see it as a worthy investment, anymore. Dad cares less and less for me each passing day.”
Max let out a groan that turned into a frustrated, rageful noise. “How is it possible?” he asked. “What is wrong with your father?”
“He doesn’t have a heart? Fuck if I know.”
“How could Brody do those things to you? How could your father not do something, if he found out?”
I was silent for a moment. The wind was picking up now, blowing over the smell of ozone in the air, like a storm was truly on the way.
“It’s always been that way, Max,” I told him. “I always liked rose bushes. We had them on the property I grew up on, too. When I was twelve, I told my dad one day after school that I’d kissed a boy by the rose bush. Dad hit me. He shoved me into the rose bushes, into a cluster of thorns. I bled through my shirt, my arms were fucked up, my back was even worse. The scar on my face was from a fat thorn near the top, where he took my face and shoved it deeper.”
“I can’t. Why, Draven? Why is it all like this?”
“It wasn’t even his worst moment,” I said. “But it stuck out to me, because I learned: Dad only wants me to be with girls. My body was lacerated with slashes from the thorns for weeks. Dad had every single rose bush ripped out of the property. Naturally, I planted dozens, when I got my own land. I tattooed them on my skin. I always wanted to be my own person. I was always defiant. But it always ended with me being hurt. Sometimes, hurting others.”
“I’m so fucking sorry, Draven,” Max breathed.
My heart felt too large for my chest. “I’ve never known love, Baby Blue,” I told him, my voice going strange, my throat tensing. “When… when you tell me you’re falling in love with me, I can’t fathom it. It’s like a mirage. It’s like something I know will disappear. How could I be loved?”
“Because it would be impossible not to love you,” Max finally said, and when I turned, his eyes were glassy.
He leaned in and kissed my cheek.
Lightly.
Then tipped his own hat off so he could move in, pressing a kiss to my lips.
“It’s no good, loving me,” I whispered.
He answered with another kiss.
“That’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told yourself,” he said after, a hollow sadness in his eyes. “And you’re not a monster.”
“You heard it all. Everything I just told you.”
“And I’m still here,” he said. “You think I shouldn’t be. But I am, because I love you. I love you, even if it’s bad. I love you, even if it takes you a million years to believe it.”
He was breaking my heart and putting it back together, all at once.
“Max,” I whispered.
“Even if you push me away, and I never see you again, I’ll still be loving you. There’s nothing that could change that now.”
Chapter 21
Max
The buzz of Draven’s phone was like a doorway back to reality.
It was as if I’d stepped into another timeline as Draven told me his story, a darker, uglier version of reality where things happened that I couldn’t comprehend.
It was real.
It made me want to take Lily away from everything, off to some protected island where she could never get involved in anything like this again. But I also knew she’d made all of the decisions herself, and that she probably didn’t regret a single one of them.