Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26105 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26105 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
The bed creaked as she rose and walked toward me. Her hand found mine, and she entwined our fingers. “You can do anything, Liam. I believe in you.”
“Why did you leave me, Charley? Why did you go?” The questions fly from my lips before I can stop them. They linger in the air between us, but I don’t regret them. I want answers. I deserve answers.
I grip Charley’s shoulders as she turns away. “Don’t do that. Don’t fucking do that. You don’t get to shut me out.”
Her eyes connect with mine, and she blows out a shaky breath. “When my dad got sick, your dad offered help.”
“What do you mean?”
“My dad needed treatment. Expensive treatment,” she says, her voice devoid of emotion as the words tumble out in a rush. “At first, my parents thought it would be okay. They had savings and figured they could manage. Then, my mom lost her job, which meant she also lost her insurance. Without that, they had no way to pay for my dad’s treatment.”
Charley pulls away from me and wraps her arms around her waist, hugging herself tightly as if holding herself together. Then she sinks to the ground, her body crumpling as if all her strength has drained from her.
“Your dad... offered me the money.” The words are a broken sob.
“Then why did you leave?” My question is a raw wound, torn open by this new knowledge.
Tears glaze her eyes as she stares straight ahead, lost in memories. “He offered me the money on the condition that we leave and I never contact you again. No goodbye. I had to disappear from your life like a ghost.”
My father paid her to leave me? My mind reels as I try to absorb this revelation. “How did he know?”
Charley shakes as tears storm down her face. “My mother went to him. She thought that since we were dating, he might help. He laughed at her. Told her that the problems of the parents of his son’s whore weren’t his to fix. Then he added that nothing in life was free, but he’d pay her to take the trash away from his son. My mother told him to go to hell, but I heard her telling my father about it that night. What was I supposed to do? What kind of person would risk their father’s life over love? I couldn’t let him die, Liam.”
I sit beside her, wanting to touch her, comfort her, but I can’t. It would be so easy to put my arm around her and pull her against me, to show her it’s okay, offer solace, but my rage is a deep-seated monster. It’s a cold, hard knot in my chest, twisted and ancient.
I thought she’d left me by choice. I’ve spent years believing she didn’t want me. All this time, I thought I’d done something wrong. I’ve replayed every fight, every careless word and missed opportunity to show her how much she meant to me.
Rummaging in my shirt pocket, I pull out a pack of cigarettes, the familiar crinkle of the cellophane a small comfort in the face of this gut-wrenching truth. I light it and take a deep haul. The smoke stings my throat, and I finally feel a small sliver of control.
“If he weren’t already dead, I might kill him.”
My words hang heavy in the air, a testament to the fury consuming me.
“You still smoke?”
I pull on the cigarette, watching the ember glow like my anger. “Only when I’m stressed or pissed.”
“Which are you now?”
“Pissed.” I manage in a harsh whisper.
“I’m sorry.” Charley’s voice is thick with emotion. “You’ve got every right to be angry with me.”
She thinks I’m angry with her. What the fuck can I be angry about? That she left me, shattered my life, to save her father’s? Fuck, she’s still sacrificing herself. For her parents, bound by blood and obligation. For Penny, her younger sister. She’s burdened with responsibilities she never asked for. She’s a goddamn martyr, a fucking saint.
A part of me, the selfish, wounded part, wants to cling to the anger. I want to scream and lash out, to make her feel the raw, gaping wound she left in my chest when she disappeared without a word. I want to punish her for choosing them over me, but I know that would be asinine. How the fuck can someone like me, full of sin, harbor resentment toward someone practically wearing a damn halo?
The part of me that’s always been irrevocably in love with Charley recognizes the unwavering core of her being—kind, loving, and selfless. It’s who she is. That giving nature, that burning desire to protect and care for everyone she loves, are the very traits that have me in her grasp and refuse to let me go.
Charley is beautiful. She walks into a room, and a man is bound to forget everything but her. Yet that’s not what makes her special. It’s the pure essence of her soul.