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)
“Jesus,” I cussed under my breath.
“She doesn’t deserve this. You know that.”
I leaned in close and lowered my voice. “This is exactly what she deserves. And you know that.”
She pressed her lips together and stole the donut from my hand, but she had no argument. I’d spoken the truth.
“I’ll see you tonight.” And with that, I was gone, walking to Thea’s car, giving myself a motivational speech with every step.
I could do this. It was going to fucking gut me, but that was nothing new. I could be nice, set her mind at ease, and maybe just maybe she’d let go of the past in order to find her future. But one way or another, it had to end.
When I climbed into her SUV, she was surfing through channels on the radio, passing the various morning shows in the hunt for music. The constant skipping grated on my nerves, but it was part of her morning ritual, and if I was being honest, it was pretty fucking cute, so I let her have it. At the first stop sign, she’d run a frustrated hand through her hair, flipping it to one side only to flip it right back. At the second stop sign, she’d huff and stab at the buttons harder, sometimes changing fingers if she was really annoyed. At the exit of the neighborhood, she’d mumble a curse, plug in her phone, and put on the same damn playlist she listened to every freaking day, like clockwork.
Sipping on my coffee, I waited until we were on the highway before asking, “So you and Tiffany are friends now, huh?”
Her head swung my way so fast that it was a wonder it didn’t fly off her neck. “Did you just speak to me?”
I shrugged. “Nora said I’m an injured puppy that you can’t catch.”
“Ah, well, that explains nothing.”
My lips twitched. “Pretty much.”
There was a long pause, neither of us knowing what the hell to say. Who knew being nice would be so damn hard?
“She was on the yearbook staff our junior year,” Thea blurted.
“Who?”
“Tiffany. She always had a camera around her neck. You probably don’t remember because you weren’t giving her the evil eye twenty-four-seven the way I was.”
“Ha! The evil eye? I wasn’t even allowed to look at her without getting in trouble. I almost broke into a cold sweat when I saw her today.”
Her face softened, and her perfect crescent lips curled into a smile. “She wanted my man. I wasn’t about to sit back and let that happen.”
Something inside me stirred at the memory of when I was hers. When I belonged. When I wasn’t fighting the way I felt for her every single minute of every single day. When I could touch her any time I wanted and hold her when she needed me. I missed the days when she was my Sparrow.
When I didn’t reply, she kept her eyes on the road and continued talking. “A few weeks after you were sentenced, she came over to my house with a shoebox of pictures. It was everything she could find of us. Sometimes we were tiny and in the background. Other times, you were all blurry. There were a couple decent ones of us laughing at lunch together.”
Surprise wasn’t a strong enough word. “Why would she do that? Tiffany wasn’t known to be…well, not a bitch.”
Thea’s gaze flicked between me and the road. “You really didn’t read any of my letters, did you?”
Shit. “Thea…I—”
“It’s okay. The letters were more for me anyway. It was therapeutic. I got to write down how much I loved you…or hated you…or missed you…or wanted to punch you.” She flashed me another smile. “I could have saved a lot of money on stamps though.”
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Anyway, back to Tiffany. I wasn’t the only one Josh hurt. I know of at least three others.”
My back shot straight, and bile clawed up the back of my throat. “No fucking way. Tiffany?”
She swayed her head from side to side. “And Jessica Lathem. And Ashley Rowlan. There’s one more, but she hasn’t said anything publicly, so I don’t feel it’s my place to out her. Her family is friends with the Caskeys. It would be a whole big thing if she came out with the truth.”
My voice echoed off the windows as I boomed, “Thea, he was raping girls. It needs to be a whole big fucking thing!”
“I agree,” she said, calm as a cucumber. Like that kid hadn’t ruined her entire freaking life. “But how she deals with what he did is her choice. He’s gone. He can’t hurt anybody else.”
“The Caskeys can though. Did you know his brother, Jonathan, wrote a letter to the parole board, trying to block me from getting out? I heard they didn’t give it to me at the eight-year mark because his dad called in some fucking favors. He was a serial rapist, and yet somehow I’m the criminal.”