Page 30 of Bitter Truth
I freeze. Don’t blink, don’t breathe, it feels like even my heart stops beating for the very long minute it takes me to compose myself. “What?”
“I told him not to trust Janine. That she had a mean streak, a vengeful side.”
“Is that what the two of you talked about when he came to see you?”
He nods. “I kept trying to apologize to him, make amends and all that, and he kept turning the conversation back to his mother. Wanted to know all about her. Asked me more questions about that woman in thirty minutes than he had in thirty years.”
My grasp tightens around the bottle in my hand until I’m afraid it’s going to shatter. But I can’t make myself relax my grip.
“What?” Dylan asks. “There’s something else that happened that you’re not telling me.”
“I should go.”
“I’m not so sure you should.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ll be safer here.”
“How’s that?”
He rams a knuckle in his mouth and bites down. I can see the war going on inside him in his tense expression. His rigid posture. The bead of blood that seeps from between his skin and his teeth. Finally, he removes his hand from his mouth, not seeming to notice the red smear that’s left behind as he wipes at the wound he gave himself.
“I’d like you to stay.”
“I can’t do that.”
His voice is thick with emotion as he says, “I failedyour parents.”
“You didn’t know Janine was planning to kill them.” It feels like a fist has clenched around my heart as I say the words.
“No, I didn’t. But I knew she was angry at them. Jealous. Bitter that they were so happy when we weren’t. Believe me, if I’d had any idea what she was planning… since I found out she was behind what happened, not a day has gone by where I haven’t regretted not taking a closer look and seeing what was really there. I’ll never forgive myself if I let the same happen to you.”
He looks at his untouched glass of whiskey, his eyes full of desire. All he’d have to do is reach for the glass to take a sip. There’s nobody stopping him. And yet, he abstains.
“I think that you might be in danger.”
“From who? Janine?”
“Yes. Her… and my son.”
“You can’t really believe that Jake would ever hurt me.”
“I’m not sure what to believe, but I do know that it’s not worth the risk.”
“There is no risk. Not from Jake.”
Ignoring my words, he says, “You should stay here. It doesn’t have to be for long, just until things cool down.”
I push back from the table.
“If you don’t want to do that, I have some money saved up. You can have it. Go take yourself on a nice vacation.”
My chair scrapes across the floor as I stand.
“Cassidy, please.”
“No. I’m not listening to this. It’s absurd.”
