Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
I closed my eyes, my throat impossibly tight.
“Is it because of what happened with my parents that night? Did… did your parents make you say what you did?”
I frowned. “What do you mean say what I did?”
His jaw tightened. “That you wanted me to stay away from you. That you never wanted to see me again.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Because that confirmed what I suspected.
His parents never told him I was pregnant.
They told him I wanted him gone.
And then, he left.
I felt myself hyperventilating, each breath harder to take than the last as it all sank in.
Oh, God.
“I know you were mad at me before the party though,” Kyle added, speaking faster like he was onto something. “You were off that whole week. I tried to talk to you, but you wouldn’t let me in. And then—” He framed my face. “What did I do? What happened?”
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. I was so overwhelmed, so devastated, so… angry — but that emotion wasn’t strong enough to trump the others, not right now.
I buried my face in his chest, trying and failing not to fall apart.
“Mads,” he croaked, holding my head to him. “You’re breaking my fucking heart right now.”
“Not as much as I’ve already broken my own.”
“Talk to me,” he begged.
I shook my head on a sob but held onto him just as tightly. “Not here.”
Kyle pulled back, holding my gaze a moment before he nodded. Then, he wrapped his hand around mine and tugged me off the floor, leading the way to our table where my clutch and his jacket still were.
“Where are you going?” Mary asked when we whizzed past her and Leo, her brows furrowing when she saw my no-doubt blotchy and tear-stained face.
“I’ll see you all in the morning,” Kyle promised, and then he hooked his arm around my waist. “I need to get my girl back to our room.”
My girl.
Our room.
My head spun with it all as much as my heart squeezed with what I was about to have to tell him.
And I only had a short car ride to figure out how.
Kyle
My stomach was tied into the tightest knot by the time we made it back to the hotel.
I held Madelyn’s hand the entire drive. She didn’t say a word, but she also didn’t pull away. She just sat beside me, her eyes trained out the window, silent tears streaming down her cheeks before she’d thumb them away.
I didn’t know what to think. My brain wanted to race, but I couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on. I had to wait for her to tell me, for her to let me in.
All I could surmise was that it had something to do with that night.
It had something to do with why she told me to stay away from her.
I wanted to know. I needed to know. And yet, at the same time, I was sick even thinking about it. Going back to that time in my life was like sticking my hand in a hot fire. I didn’t want to relive the pain — but I knew the only way for us to move forward was for us to face our past.
Blessedly, the media had gone by the time we pulled up to the hotel doors. Still, I shielded Madelyn with my suit jacket just in case there was someone sneaking around trying to get a photo. I rushed her to the elevator, holding her hand all the way until we slid inside our room and the door shut behind us.
Immediately, we were engulfed with the heaviest silence I’d ever felt.
I laid my jacket over the back of the desk chair, my eyes on Madelyn as she sat on the edge of the bed like she was in a daze. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, her fingers curling into the comforter as if it was all that held her to this Earth.
I didn’t rush her. Instead, I left her alone for a moment — just long enough to get ice from down the hall. I poured us both two tall glasses of ice water when I returned, and Madelyn took a long drink of hers before setting it aside.
“Tell me what happened that night,” she finally said, her voice low and cracking. “And the next morning.”
I swallowed. “You know what happened.”
She shut her eyes tightly and shook her head just once, fast and hard. “I need to hear it. I need you to tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single detail.”
My heart protested in my ribcage, lungs squeezing painfully. My entire body was ready to revolt at the thought of having to go back to that dark time in my life.
But I’d do anything Madelyn asked me to — even if it meant bleeding out right here at her feet.