Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 158872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 530(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 158872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 530(@300wpm)
I trusted him.
Our love is strong.
Strong enough to withstand weeks apart.
But not strong enough for Griff to resist temptation.
My chest hurts, and I drag in a ragged breath. How can his betrayal physically hurt so much? Never mind the embarrassment of my friends and family surrounding me while we all witness the love of my life cheating on me on national television.
I trusted him with everything.
On wobbly legs, I walk out of the house and onto the front porch. Fog dulls my brain. My thoughts tumble in a painful circle. If anyone calls after me or follows, I can’t hear them.
Air. Oxygen. I can’t breathe.
Griff…with another woman.
Those grainy, black-and-white images. The voices. His voice. Shushing her. Hurry up.
That’s not the sweet, loving, patient way he treated me.
That doesn’t ease any of my pain, though.
I squeeze my eyes shut but the images won’t go away. My mind fills in the gaps of what I couldn’t make out on the screen. Griff’s face, his body. The other woman, who’s been yapping to the cameras about how hot he is for weeks, touching him.
Pain slices through my heart, and I double over. A deep, ragged sob tears out of my throat. Blindly, I thrust my hand forward, searching for the railing. Tears scald my eyes and trail over my cheeks.
My Griff. My first love. The man I’d thought would be my only love. My forever.
How could he do this to us?
“Molly.” Remy’s solid voice offers no comfort—only more pain. He’ll take his best friend’s side. Tell me to get over it. Or that we shouldn’t have been together in the first place. I’m too young for Griff. We’re too different.
I hate that maybe Remy’s right.
I sniffle and stand straight but still cling to the railing, too embarrassed to turn around and face my brother.
“Molly.” He rests his hand on my shoulder and turns me to face him. I duck my head and curse the tears rolling down my cheeks.
He wraps his arms around me, pulling me close into his solid, protective embrace. “I’m so sorry,” he rasps.
“Why?” My voice cracks, and I sob even harder. “Why would he do that?”
Remy’s body stiffens for a moment, but he keeps hugging me. “I don’t know. But everything’s going to be okay, Molly. I promise.”
“Nothing will ever be okay again.”
“Shh,” he soothes, running his hand over my hair and down my back. “Yes, it will.”
“How?” I cry.
“Because when I get my hands on him, I’m going to murder him for doing this to you,” Remy swears.
“W-what?” I stutter and pull away from Remy. “You don’t mean that. He’s your best friend.”
“Oh, yes I do.” Murderous intent shines in my brother’s eyes. “I fucking warned him if he pulled something like this what would happen.”
“Something…like this? How could you predict he’d cheat on me on national television?”
“I meant cheat on you in general. Or hurt you in any way.”
“Wait, what?” My voice rises into screaming range. “You talked to him about cheating on me?”
“No. When he told me his intention to date you, I warned him if he ever hurt you, I’d hurt him.”
Any other night, under any other circumstances, I might find that sweet. But right now, my anger and heartbreak execute a swift detour and aim at the man in front of me. “That’s humiliating.” I lift my arms to shove him, but he catches my hands mid-air. “Why can’t you mind your own business?”
“You are my business.” He grips my shoulders and shakes me. “Like it or not, you’ll always be my business, Molly. Someone hurts you, they hurt me. And no one gets away with that unpunished.” His voice breaks, and he shakes his head. “Not even him.”
“You’re insane.” I jerk out of his hold and step around him, then barge into the house.
Hayden rushes to meet me in the foyer. “Are you okay?”
“No.”
She focuses on the door like she’s planning her escape. Can’t say I blame her. “The teasers for next week…just look like they all discuss ‘the aftermath.’ Griff says to the camera he ‘doesn’t know what to tell Molly.’” She screws her face into a furious scowl. “What a load of crap.”
“Aftermath.” I let out a pathetic laugh that sounds like a sob. “Yeah, can’t wait for whatever he has to tell me.”
“Don’t answer the phone.”
Why’d I agree to have everyone over to watch this again? So there’d be witnesses to my humiliation? It’s been a shitshow from the first episode. How could I think it’d get any better?
Thank God school’s over. I can’t imagine trying to walk through the hallways and look at my classmates after this.
But I don’t have to.
I don’t have to look at anyone ever again.
Maybe I’ll just leave town. Tell no one where I’m going. Disappear and start a new life.
Except that stupid show flashed my face in every episode. But who cares? It’s just some dumb reality show. The only reason it matters here is because everyone in Johnsonville knows Griff. Everyone in my class met him at prom.