Southern Secrets by Natasha Madison
Chapter 30
Amelia
I don’t saya word as we make our way to my house. “Are you okay?” I hear from Quinn beside me. He walked me out the door, but as soon as the door closed behind him, he picked me up. It didn’t help that my knees buckled, and I almost face-planted into the gravel road.
"No," I answer him honestly, staring out at the blue sky. My stomach is a ball of fire. "Not in the slightest," I say, my eyes never leaving the front of the truck.
"Do you want me to call Chelsea?" he asks, and I just shake my head.
"I just need to be alone right now," I say when he pulls up to my house. "My head is just …"
"Will you call me if you need me?" he asks when my hand comes out and grabs the handle of the door. "If not me, then at least someone." I look down, blinking away the tears. "You shouldn’t be here alone," he says.
I look back at the house. "Actually …" I swallow down my pride. "Do you think I could stay with you tonight?" I ask him, my bottom lip trembling. "It’s totally okay if you have plans."
"Go get your bag," Quinn tells me. "I’ll wait for you here." I nod and open the door. "Um," he says, and I look back at him. “You know he’s going to show up here.” I close my eyes, knowing he is right. “I would hear him out, regardless of what he did.”
I hold up my hand, not ready to hear anything that anyone has to say about him. In the end, he lied to me, just like Tex did; the only difference is people actually know about it. The only difference is people will look at me and know the mistakes I’ve made. "I don’t want to."
"Go get your things," he says, and I nod at him, getting out of the truck and allowing the tears to come. Better now, when I’m alone, than in front of everyone. I unlock and open the door, the cold air hitting me, and I can smell him in the air. I close the door behind me softly and head to my bedroom.
I stop at the doorway and look at the room, the bed still a mess from this afternoon. I walk in and smell him all around me. The woodsy smell that only he gives out, the smell that made me feel so fucking safe.
I bend to pick up his T-shirt on the floor beside the bed and bring it to my nose. The sob comes through me when I sit on the bed. I’m shocked and stunned. Never would I have imagined this. Never would I have thought that he would be the one to do this to me. To lie to me.
I look over at the side table, seeing his stuff on there, and my hand goes to my stomach. I look over at the corner of the room where his stuff is on the chair. He’s everywhere I look, and I know that I have to get out of here.
I walk to the closet and grab a bag when I hear the front door open and slam shut. My hands shake when I hear the footsteps come closer and closer, the bag dropping on the floor.
I turn to walk out of the closet when I see him standing there at the entrance to the bedroom. I look at him, and my heart shatters in my chest. I was right about one thing. I will not get over him. "Baby," he says, his voice in a whisper, and I shake my head. I hold up my hand, no words coming up over the lump in my throat.
"Don’t," I finally muster out. "I don’t."
"Listen to me, please," he says, taking a step into the room. My body aches for his touch, wanting him to put his palm on my cheek and his thumb to wipe away the tears that don’t stop pouring out.
"There is nothing to say," I say, anger starting to take over. "You’re a liar." Three words I never thought I would say to him.
"I never lied to you," he says, his voice tight. "Never."
"Omitting that you were half brothers with Ethan," I say as I step out of my closet, "is the same as fucking lying." I lash out at him.
"What I told you about myself was the truth," he says. "Everything I told you was my truth."
"You used my family and me," I say, and it’s his turn to take a step back as if I slapped him across the face. "You came here knowing who you were and who we were." I shrug my shoulders. "I was just a stupid girl who fell in love with you." I shake my head. "Or was that a lie, too? You know, get more into the family before you told us who you really were."
"Nothing," he hisses. "Nothing between us was a lie. I love you, Amelia. I love you with every fucking bone in my body. I love you with every fiber of my being. I love you with every breath I take." I ignore the way my body wants to go to him. I ignore the pull of his words. I ignore it all. "You don’t think it killed me every single day waking up next to you having this on my mind."
"Well, obviously not enough to let you tell me the truth." I swallow the pain in my chest, the burning in my stomach starts to grow. The fear of breaking down in front of him, making the back of my neck burn. He doesn’t deserve to see you fall, I tell myself. "I did it again," I say, my voice trembling no matter how much I fight it off. The tears come, and I have no more energy left to stop them. All I know is that I have to get out of here before I crumple, and he doesn’t get to have that. He doesn’t get to see that he broke me. I listened to my heart, and I only have myself to blame. I walk to the doorway and look at him. "Take your shit and get out of my house." I walk right past him toward the front door. Every single step, I feel my body get heavier and heavier. I open the door, and Quinn is right there to catch me before I fall.
"I got you," he says. My eyes just close, and I see black.
"Bring her in the house." I hear Asher’s voice, the anguish in his tone. "I’m leaving." I hear his footsteps get farther and farther away from me. The sound of the truck door closing and leaving makes my eyes flutter open as I feel myself being carried.
"I think you passed out," Quinn says, and all I can do is close my eyes. "Sorry, but I had to call Chelsea," he says, walking into my bedroom, and I shake my head.
"Couch," I say, and he turns to walk back out to the couch. He places me on the couch, and I look at him.
"He’s gone," Quinn says, looking at me and running a hand through his hair, his face white as if he saw a ghost. He walks over to the kitchen and heads straight to where I keep my grandfather’s special whiskey. He unscrews the top and takes a huge gulp, his eyes closing as it goes down his throat. I know that burn hurts. "He’s …" He shakes his head. "He’s destroyed." I’m about to say something, and he holds up his hand. "I’m not on his side," he says right away. "But you didn’t see him."
"I don’t care." I say the three words that are a lie. I’m a liar just like him. I don’t want to think about it. I can’t think about it.
The sound of running and the door opening have me looking to the side to see Chelsea there. "What happened?" she asks, rushing over to me, turning to look at Quinn. "Did you get her a cold rag for her to put on her neck?" He shakes his head. "What the fuck have you been doing?" she says, totally unaware of what just went on. "Why are you drinking?"
"It’s over." I look at her, and her mouth opens and then closes. "It’s a long story."
"It’s a fucked-up story," Quinn says from the kitchen, drinking another shot. "It’s the story that you never expect to hear, and then you hear it, and you look around wondering, did I just hear what he said." He closes his eyes. "It’s like Twilight Zone kind of thing."
Chelsea gets up and looks at him like he has two fucking heads. "Asher is Liam’s son," I say
the words, and her face turns white. Her mouth opens, then closes again. "Exactly."
"Did he know?" she asks, putting her hand to her stomach, neither of us answering her. So she looks at us again. "Did he know when he came here?" Again we just look at each other and Chelsea sits on the couch next to me. "Does Ethan know?" she asks, and I nod my head.
"I need," I say. "I need to pack his stuff." I turn to get off the couch. "He needs his stuff."
"We need to burn his stuff," Chelsea says, and Quinn laughs.
"Again." He shakes his head when Chelsea gasps out. "Too soon."
"I’m fine." I get up and sit back down when the room spins. Chelsea gets up and holds out her hand. "I’m fine. I just got up too fast," I say, and she doesn’t move.
"I’ll help you there, and then you can do your thing," she says, and I reach out, taking her hand in mine.
"I feel weird," I say finally. "And I can’t explain it," I say, walking with her into my room. "It’s almost like …"
"A piece of you is missing," Chelsea says from beside me softly. The tears don’t even warn me this time. They just come, one after another, like a dam being opened. My hand covers my mouth to stop the sob. "You don’t have to do this," Chelsea says from beside me. "Why don’t you do it tomorrow?"
"No," I say, shaking my head. "I need him gone," I say. "I need to see that all of his stuff is gone." She nods her head at me as I go over to the bed and start ripping off the sheets. "These need to go in the garbage.” I throw my cover on the floor, followed by the sheets. My body shakes but with rage, rage that I let myself fall for someone who hurt me. Rage that I can’t stop thinking about how he is feeling. Rage that all I want to do is ask him to come back. I walk around the bed, grabbing the pillows and also throwing them on the floor.
I don’t bother to hide the tears when Quinn comes in. He looks at me and then at Chelsea, who just shakes her head. "Leave her."
"I want it all gone," I tell them both. "I need garbage bags," I say, walking out of the room past both of them and going to the kitchen. Grabbing two from the box, I go back to my room. "Quinn, hold the bag open, and I’ll throw the stuff in it." I shake the garbage bag open. "Chelsea, help me put the stuff in the bag," I say, and she helps me with no questions asked. I grab the other bag and walk around the room, throwing out everything that reminds me of him.
Picking up the little glass jar that he bought me last week with the two little red roses in them, I throw it into the empty garbage bag, the sound of the glass shattering makes me look up. "It’s funny," I say, looking down at the bag, then up again. "I thought when my heart broke earlier, I would hear it shatter, just like the glass did." I wipe my cheek when Chelsea takes a step forward, and I hold up my hand. "I just want all of his stuff gone so I never have to look at it again," I say, my voice going lower. "The sooner I do that, the sooner I can forget about him."
