Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“What Livie described were isolated incidents that happened over a long stretch of time while Mal was out of her mind.”
“You should have told me.” His jaw ticks, anger hot in his eyes.
“When? How!?” I ask, blinking and trying hard to clear the knot from my throat and stop tears from filling my eyes. “I called your mother and told her, and Mallory called me a traitor and stormed out of my life, and you know what, Finn?” I say, leaning into my anger. “I should have never let her back in, but she was alone, and I couldn’t be yet another person who just ignored her,” I say and watch him flinch.
I wait until he says something. When he doesn’t, I’m filled with a new sense of disappointment and pain. My lips start to tremble, but I manage to say, “I’ll be at my place.”
I turn around and head to the door, trying to push down the sob forming in my chest. I could turn around and point out a plethora of things that would make him feel like shit, but I don’t. Not only is it not in my nature to purposely hurt someone, but doing it to him makes me feel sick. If he wants to blame me for something, fine, but I won’t sit here and pretend I knew this was how Mallory felt. And I won’t let myself feel bad for not seeing it.
With my hand on the handle, I say, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I don’t even know what the fuck I’m apologizing for, but it’s the most I can do. I make it all the way to the elevator before I break down.
42
JOSSLYN
I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep, when I feel my bed shift and the warmth of Finn’s body behind me. He tucks an arm under me and wraps the other one over me to pull me flush against his chest. For a moment, I think I’m dreaming. I touch him, inhale his scent, and turn to look at him before shutting my eyes and settling against him.
“I shouldn’t have screamed at you,” he murmurs against my ear.
“You’re right, you shouldn’t have. I understand your frustration, but I really didn’t know any of this.”
“I know. Even if you did, you had no reason to tell me, and even if you had, it probably wouldn’t change anything.”
“Can we not talk about this right now?” I whisper, feeling new tears build in my eyes.
“Okay.” He sighs, his breath tickling the nape of my neck. “Is your mom the only one who calls you Josie?”
My eyes pop open. “Yeah. My dad started calling me that as a joke when I told him some kids at school were taunting me with it. I used to hate it so much.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It just wasn’t my name. ‘Joss’ was fine because at least it sounds like Josslyn, but Josie just pissed me off.” I laugh a little. “He kept calling me that and then Mom joined in, but they’re the only ones who were ever allowed to.”
“Really? Not even Dame or Titus get to call you that?”
“No.” I laugh a little. “Damian did once and I gave him a black eye.”
His laughter shakes my entire body. “You hate it that much?”
“No, but he was taunting me. He never did it again. I’m not even sure I’d care if he or Titus did it now, since they’d probably use it the way Mom does, but I think they figure it’s something between me and my parents.”
“Did they get along? Titus and your dad?”
“Oh my god, yeah,” I say. “Dad even joked that he wished Titus would have fallen for him instead of Mom. We never had that awkward stage between our families. It was pretty cool.”
“What about Damian? I can’t imagine he never had a secret crush on you,” he says and begrudgingly adds, “or you on him.”
I roll my eyes. “Our friends have always loved to romanticize the stepsibling thing, which is annoying. Dame blames porn.”
He chuckles lightly. “I have to agree.”
“Either way, no. We were very brother-sisterly from the start.”
“What about his mom?”
I feel myself stiffen. “She passed away when he was young. We don’t really talk about it,” I say, and add, “She was killed by a boyfriend. It was very disturbing and tragic. Titus blamed himself for a long time. At least, according to Mom. He never speaks about it either. We do have pictures of her throughout the house, though. Mom wanted to make sure Dame knew she wasn’t trying to replace her.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “You have a good family.”
“I know.” I lick my lips. “Dame was there when I found Dad. We were on our way to school and I kept saying I had a really bad feeling, so Dame drove to my dad’s instead of school.” I swallow hard. “He waited in the car while I went inside. I blocked most of it out, but I do remember him carrying me out of the house.”