Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“I had no choice.” The four words he repeated when he broke my heart, four words that he confessed to me a month after the accident. When whispers started that Waylon wasn’t to blame. There was no way he could have done what he did. How people who looked at me as if I was doing something wrong when all along Brock had a different story. His story was making us all look like we were crazy. Like we didn’t remember that night like he did. “I was out of my mind, worried about you and where you were.” His voice sounds just as broken as I feel inside me. “He said all I had to do was tell everyone that Waylon was not reckless. That the accident wasn’t his fault and he was struck head-on by another car. That the truck came into our lane and not the other way around.” Every single time, it’s like a kick to my stomach, feeling like I’m struggling to even breathe. “That he was not drinking, which I thought he wasn’t. I handed him a beer that night, and he said no. I thought he was fine.” I shake my head. “They had our future in the palm of their hands. They made me a promise they would help me open my own firm, and that all future plans would be with me. They even dangled taking away the contracts my father had with the construction company in my face. They would take away all their business from him. He would have gone belly up if that happened.” He shakes his head. “I couldn’t let that happen. Not to him. Not ever.” He shakes his head as he lays it all out for me like he should have done all those years ago. “All I had to say was he was driving perfectly fine and the other car hit us.”
“But he wasn’t!” I yell out. “He was reckless, and in the end, he killed four people.”
He throws his hands up. “What the fuck would you have done? What the fuck was I supposed to fucking do?” he roars. “I made a fucking deal with the devil, and in the end, I lost. No matter what, the Cartwrights had everyone in their pocket. It wouldn’t have changed anything,” he says as if he believes it. Like if after all this time he wasn’t wrong. Like what he did, didn’t fucking destroy us.
“It changed fucking everything,” I sob. “You changed everything. You didn’t once think about us.” My voice goes low. “You never once thought about me.” I hit my chest, hoping to stop the pain that is soaring through me.
He takes a step back as if I struck him. “How can you say that to me? You—” he says the words like he’s in pain. “You were the only fucking thing I thought about. You were all I ever thought about.” His voice trails off, and then softly and slowly, he turns and walks away from me.
Chapter Sixteen
BROCK
I see her break down in front of me. “It changed fucking everything,” she sobs, a wrecked sob that cuts me off at my knees. It’s even a miracle I’m still standing. “You changed everything. You didn’t once think about us.” Her voice goes down to a whisper, but the night is quiet, and I can hear every word. “You never once thought about me.”
I can’t help but take a step back when she says the words. With each word, it feels like a blade slicing me open, leaving me to bleed out. “How can you say that to me? You—” The words feel like they are ripped out of me. “You were the only fucking thing I thought about. You were all I ever thought about.” I trail off, not sure I can stand here and take much more. So instead of causing her more pain, I do the cowardly thing as I slowly turn and start to walk away from her. There is nothing left to say. Everything that should have been said should have been said all those years ago. Not now. Not when everything is done and buried.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” she snaps to my retreating back, her voice so tight I know her hands are balled by her sides. “I would have given up being set for life. I would have done everything to make sure that would have not been taken away from you.” I close my eyes, stopping in my tracks. “I would have done nothing that would have jeopardized us. That would have taken your love away from me.”
“You can’t say that.” I turn to the side, seeing her exactly the way I thought she would be, but also looking more beautiful than I remember. More beautiful than my dreams. More beautiful than my memories. “What would you do if they told you they would take away everything from you? If they showed you how set up your mother would be and she would never have to work again?” I know she would go to hell and back for her mother. She would lay her life on the line to take her place. I'm sure she would have done what I did. Or at least in the moment, that is what I tell myself. “Would you not do it for her after everything she’s done for you? You stand there and are able to tell me you wouldn’t do it for her?”