Reclaim Read Online Aly Martinez

Categories Genre: Angst, Contemporary, Erotic, Romance Tags Authors: Aly Martinez Advertisement1

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Yeah. That was it.

The arrow through the heart.

Nora was done. She didn’t need my address in Alberton anymore. She had no intention of ever coming back to me.

As I walked away that day, lost and heartbroken, I was clueless if I’d made the right decision by not pounding her door down. I prayed to every God in the universe that she was just mad and would eventually come around.

I waited at the creek for a week. Day and night. My heart in my throat. Staring at the road and waiting for her to appear.

She never did.

Not for two long years.

The best part about expecting the entire world to fail you is that, when it finally happens, you at least have the peace of mind from knowing you were right.

Life didn’t stop because Camden Cole was gone.

Nor did it stop because Josh Caskey was free without a care in the world.

My bruises eventually faded—at least the ones on the outside.

Inside, I was shattered, rotting, and severed from my only lifeline: Camden.

I woke up every morning and performed the herculean task of putting one foot in front of the other, and every afternoon, I’d collapse into bed, exhausted, and with aching cheeks from faking happiness I never truly felt.

Everything was a show, from the smiles and laughs to being social and hanging out with Ramsey and Thea. I was stuck in the darkness as the world spun beneath my feet, desperately wishing for a way out, all the while knowing I’d never find one. I never went back to the creek, but sometimes, I’d lie in bed late at night, the window open, crickets chirping and fireflies flashing, and pretend.

Camden was always there in those daydreams. His arms around me. Holding me like he had our last night together in my bedroom. A torturous flashback of the first and only time I’d felt truly safe.

I blew out candles on my thirteenth birthday and opened the few Christmas presents Ramsey and I exchanged every year. Thea and I became closer. She asked the most questions when things seemed off, but as long as she wasn’t suspicious, neither was my brother.

Time passed, but the nearly constant ache inside me never did.

I ran into Josh around town. Most of the time, he ignored me, but on occasion, he’d try to talk to me. Even if it was only to lean in close and whisper how many times he’d watched the video of us together—essentially prying my ribs open and ripping my heart out all over again.

I wanted to disappear, and to be honest, I thought about it more times than I would ever admit. At night, when I wasn’t pretending to be with Camden at the creek again, I’d imagine the blissful hollowness of death. The quiet. The absence of feelings. The constant stress vibrating in my veins finally stilling and my mind falling into nothingness.

I always woke up the next morning.

Same hollow chest.

Same fake smile.

Same despair.

My fourteenth birthday came and went, as did my first day of high school. Passing Josh in the hallway was something I had to get used to. By that point, I was so numb that I didn’t have much left for him to hurt anymore. He still tried though and slipped a picture of us kissing with his hand on my breast into my locker. I spent the rest of the afternoon, throwing up and contemplating how long Ramsey would blame himself if I finally found the courage to end it all.

In the end, I chickened out, but I would spend years regretting my decision not to do it when I had the chance.

One choice and I destroyed the lives of the three people I loved most in the world.

And one monster.

I startled awake at the groan of my window as it suddenly opened. Still foggy with sleep, I struggled to focus on the dark figure outside. My pulse spiked, and just before a scream tore from my throat, I made out my brother’s broad shoulders as he climbed through.

Clutching my chest, I sat up in bed and hissed, “What are you doing?”

“My window was locked,” he replied.

It was his birthday, and minus a brawl with my dad, he and Thea had been out at their tree all night. But as he stomped through my room to his across the hall, a shit-ton of pissed-off energy filling his wake, the hairs on my neck stood on end.

Throwing the covers back, I climbed out of bed and followed after him. “Are you okay?”

“Not even close,” he muttered, swiping his car keys off his dresser.

Ramsey had grown up a lot in the last few years. He was over six feet tall and, at seventeen, had filled out into a man. He’d gotten a job and bought a clunker, where he and Thea spent the majority of their time making out in the back seat. He was still my brother though, so whenever I needed to go somewhere, I always had a ride.


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