Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Ramsey hadn’t killed Josh for me.
Ramsey hadn’t been forced to give up his entire life for me.
I hadn’t fucking caused Ramsey to spend over twelve years behind bars.
She had.
And he’d chosen that when he’d taken that plea bargain, knowing good and damn well it should have been Nora.
“Fuck you,” I spat. “Fuck both of you.”
Nora looked surprised.
Ramsey looked almost relieved.
The constant sting of pain and anguish I’d lived with every minute of every day since Ramsey had been arrested surged through my veins, morphing into a sludge of deception. I was wearing pajama pants and one of Ramsey’s hoodies, but I wouldn’t have given a damn if I’d been naked.
I needed to get the hell out of that house.
Spinning on a toe, I stomped to the front door and snatched my keys off the hook. My wallet sat on top of the contents of my purse, which had been dumped out, all of my personal and private belongings scattered across the floor. And wasn’t that just so damn symbolic of my life. I picked it up and tucked it under my arm.
“Thea, wait. Just listen.”
“What for?” I snapped. “Nothing you have to say will change anything. Spin it whatever way you have to in order to sleep at night. But the facts are you killed Josh, Nora. Then you killed Ramsey by letting him take the blame. And then you sat around for twelve fucking years, holding me when I cried and filling my head with lies about how much he loved me, when you had the ability to stop it all.” I watched with a sick pleasure as every word struck her like a bullet.
“That’s not fair,” Ramsey rumbled.
“None of this is fair!”
Nora folded her hands in front of her like she was saying a prayer. “Please listen to me. I tried to tell the cops. But he’d already signed a confession. They wouldn’t even take a statement from me. They had their man. They didn’t want to hear anything I had to say.”
“So you quit? You just went home? And just thought, Oh, well. I tried. Have a nice life, Ramsey.”
“I…I…” she stammered without actually saying anything.
It was Ramsey who found his words first. “I told her to stop.” He stabbed a finger at his chest. “I made the decision to take the fall. She didn’t even know what was going on. And by the time she did, it was too late. For fuck’s sake, I never expected it to get that far. I told them I hit a deer. I figured worst-case scenario, I’d get a ticket or a fine. But then—”
“Oh, so we’re back to this being my fault? Because I told the cops about Josh and it gave you a motive to kill him? A motive to kill a person you didn’t fucking kill!”
He shook his head adamantly. “No. Jesus Christ. It was never your fault. I did this. I did all of this. I was trying to fix the impossible. She was a fourteen-year-old girl who had lived through hell.”
“I lived through hell!” I exploded. “I fucking needed you and you weren’t there!”
With long strides, he closed the distance between us. Instinct told me to back away, but I wasn’t afraid of Ramsey. There was nothing left of me for him to destroy.
He grabbed my hips, fisting his hands into the sides of his hoodie. “I know! And there has never been a part of this, including spending half my life in prison, that I hated more. I abandoned you. I ruined everything. But I tried to let you go because you deserved better than that. This is not Nora’s fault. She wanted to tell you. So many damn times, she begged me. But she needed you. You needed each other. I couldn’t be there, but dammit, I didn’t want either of you to be alone.”
I gritted my teeth and gave him a hard shove. “Always the martyr.”
“Martyrs die, Thea. I’m not that fucking lucky.”
“I hate you,” I hissed into his face.
“Good. You should. I’ve been trying to make you see that all goddamn week.”
I wanted to slap him. I wanted to punch him. I wanted to make him hurt the way their betrayal was destroying me.
But I didn’t have another decade of my life to waste on Ramsey and Nora Stewart.
“You two deserve each other.” With that, I marched out of their lives for what I hoped was forever.
Bypassing the 4Runner I’d bought for Ramsey, I went straight for my old Camry in the garage. I peeled off his hoodie and threw it on the ground, not giving a damn if anyone could “see my tits” through my tank top. I didn’t want anything that reminded me of them.
If only the scars on my heart were so easy to get rid of.
As I pulled away, Ramsey was standing in the front yard, a storm in his eyes, and I didn’t have to return his stare to feel the intensity creep across my skin. And despite being hurt beyond all reason, there was a part me that wanted to climb out of that car, dive into his arms, and never leave.