Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Lies.
Heinous, horrible lies.
Arthur never slept with me out of respect. He managed to control himself, knowing that we were too young, even when we wanted to be together more than anything.
Arthur never disrespected anyone. He was a good person.
An amazing person.
This traitorous statement sent Arthur to prison for triple homicide. It slandered him as a cutthroat beast who had no soul and could shoot people who’d patched up his bruises delivered at the hands of his father. Arthur adored my mother. So many nights he’d come around, lip bleeding from discipline and shoulders slumped from unhappiness. My mother would hug him, kiss him—she loved him like a son.
He would never be able to hurt them.
Ever.
Arthur wasn’t using me. He wasn’t planning to murder my parents.
Was he?
I clutched my hair, tearing it at the roots, refusing to let such evil seep into my thoughts. I knew the boy who held my heart. I knew his dreams and aspirations, and I knew how tender and loving he was.
He would never kill those he cared for. Never!
As I rocked on the bed, swallowing back sobs and terror, something twitched inside my mind.
A gentle clinking as a chain loosened around the fissured wall, falling away like dead vines.
Keys suddenly fit into locks, and the wall—the horrible, frustrating, crippling wall that I’d lived with for eight long years—began to crumble.
Brick by brick. Mortar by mortar. It collapsed into a pile of earthquake-reduced rubble.
Then the pain and fogginess of being drugged intensified as every memory that had battered for freedom suddenly rushed forward unhindered.
Shards of thoughts.
Splinters of recollections.
They all flew into being, crushing me beneath the weight of knowing.
My mind!
Everything was there.
Every file in its perfect place.
Every thought where it should be.
A perfect Rolodex of childhood happiness, teenage trials, and then…
No.
Two weeks after my fourteenth birthday. The night of my parent’s murder.
No. No. No.
Please no!
My hand slapped over my mouth.
My mind snapped and the wall that’d only just crumbled was suddenly reerected, blocking out the quick glimpse I’d seen.
My thoughts scrambled, wiping any evidence free from my mind. A perfect eraser for a broken brain.
That was what my amnesia was protecting me from.
The truth about what happened that night. The truth I wasn’t strong enough to face.
I knew now why Arthur thought I would run when I remembered. I understood why he was petrified to tell me.
But he had it wrong.
So wrong.
I didn’t hate him—I could never hate him.
But I could hate the ones who were there that night—the ones who shattered not just my world but the boy I loved to the point of no redemption.
That night was heinous. Drenched in blood, deceit, and terror.
Arthur. God—
What they did to him… It was vile.
My heart spasmed, blocking out the rest like heavy smog.
The lies made more sense than the truth, but I knew which one to believe.
The reality wasn’t clear-cut or simple. It was twisted and hid so many sins.
And my mind didn’t want me to remember.
It protected me for one reason alone.
One vital self-preserving reason.
The truth had the power to kill me.
The truth was despicable.
To Be Continued....
Playlist
Hoobastank, “The Reason”
Pink, “Try”
Bush, “Glycerine”
Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko, “Stay”
Christina Perri, “The Lonely”
Muse, “I Belong to You”
Clean Bandit, “Rather Be”
Evanescence, “Bring Me to Life”
Florence and the Machine, “Cosmic”
Cary Brothers, “Ride”
White Stripes, “Fight for My Love”
Meg Meyer, “Adelaide”
Five Seconds of Summer, “Amnesia”
Anastasia, “Journey to the Past”
Borgeous, “Wildfire”