Sequel to 'Choices'.
When he said, "It's no where near enough-" he really did mean it after all.
Hardin Scott has held a stunning record at breaking hearts, especially when he is served Theresa Young's.
Bleeding in love, Tessa has concluded that pe...
Ever since that day, Hardin and I had never addressed the sex tape. Never argued, never fought about it. Because I couldn't get myself to, and Hardin wouldn't initiate it either.
I guess that was the reason, that I couldn't really move on the way I should have, that I couldn't forget, couldn't let go of the grief. Because even after everything, it came down to that one unbearable betrayal.
Right now, I look back at Hardin, my heart thumping in my chest in a wild, frantic frenzy, and every part of me shakes in terror like a child, refusing to believe in hope again because it has just been disappointed too many times.
I feel my chest constricting, my lungs burning but I can't breathe.
"What?" I whisper out, my face morphed into a disbelieving frown.
"I didn't. There's no sex tape." Hardin states in a strong voice and his face is bathed in a strained, remorseful look.
"You-" I don't speak for a minute, because I can't gather my head, but when I try, I can't even get a sentence out.
"Did you even look at the clip twice, see your face?" He asks me firmly,
"I-" I try to form an answer to his question, but there's not one.
Amidst all of that, it had been so mind numbing, so- viciously humiliating that my head had not bothered to dive into technicalities. And of course I wouldn't go on searching my face in it, because it was too much to take already- without seeing it.
But now that Hardin mentions it, with that conviction, daring me to falsify him, I can't conjure up my face in the memory of that clip for the simple reason that I had not seen it.
All this time the one thing I desperately struggled for was to erase that picture from my consciousness. But it has been there, and the bare backed myself had been there. But then, that was all there was- a back.
"That girl in there, she's not you. It's just a random clip from a pornsite." Hardin says out softly, and I try to bring my mind around.
The only thing, the biggest thing that had made me hate him with all my being, that had given me grief unparalleled, is suddenly a big question mark.
And even now, when I know what he's trying to say, when I know that this is probably true because there's facts, I still can't bring myself to believe.
"But, I saw her, she -"
"The resemblance was stark, she looked like you from the back, which is why I planned to do this.
I planned to do this, to hurt you, because I'm twisted in my head, but there's no way in hell I would've let-" Hardin speaks out desperately, his voice drenched with self loathing and distress as if he's trying to erase out blood stains from his hands but they won't.
"I wouldn't do that to you. To anyone." He adds softly, his eyes burning in agony, and I whimper.
"No one has it, no one has seen it. Even Sofia wasn't supposed to get a hold of it, I don't know- she must have got it in the club that night.
I testified against her, I got her suspended, Brandon knows this.
And even when that girl is not you, I still got the video blocked, it doesn't exist, Tessa. No one- I wouldn't let that happen."
He bends his face down to my level, his words tumbling out rushed and hysterical, and he slams his palm on the wall beside my head, closing his eyes with a painful scowl.
My mind explodes. My head spins with a blaring ache, and streams of tears come rushing down uncontrollably at this whole- at everything. The entire year rewinds in front of my eyes and every moment plays backwards.
I dig my nails into my palms to keep myself conscious, and then I feel a prick inside. Hope, pricks me inside.
"Sofia said you had to get the angles, there was a camera, and you morphed-" I mumble dazed and absentminded, every piece of sanity shredded.
Hardin opens his eyes with a flame of renewed anger.
"Sofia doesn't know a single thing about that night. She just saw the clip on my phone, she asked about it, I just cooked up a story threw it on her face, I didn't know she would- that was the biggest mistake." He grits and his eyes cry out in guilt, pleading to be believed.
I feel like the universe, time and Hardin have played a collective joke on me.
My heart beat accelerates faster than I can control. There's too many emotions running wild within me and I just can't catch up.
There's this pain of having been lied to, again, the anger of Hardin going to such lengths just to hurt me, regret of having hated him for the wrong reasons and then there's an outburst of relief and happiness.
All my love, that had been hiding behind my walls of reason and self respect, had broken free, and all I could think of-
Don't leave me.
You're everything Theresa.
Stay with me.
"That means no one- " I break off, in a cathartic whisper, a burden lifting off me.
I feel Hardin's eyes burning with a fiery sincerity, as he pushes himself closer to me and his hold on my arms softens delicately.
"No one. That night, is yours, and mine. Protected. Untainted. Untouched." He whispers back to me, a layer of moisture gathering in the side of his bloodshot eyes.
"I had a fucking breakdown. In the whole charade, that one night, all of it was r-real." His voice breaks painfully, and I let out a helpless sob through the lump in my throat.
The whole might replays in my head, and I feel that- I feel that Hardin has returned my memories to me. He has returned his love, his touch, his closeness- and every drop of it, is chaste. Uncontaminated. Innocent.
I swallow, and repeat to my subconscious, that we got our wish. Hardin, is not that person. It's time we reinstate that lost pride, that lost integrity, back to our love.
"You didn't make-" As my body slowly comes to terms with this revelation, my heart already starts throbbing in hope and happiness, while my brain, defensively still tries to believe that this isn't another hoax.
Hardin intakes a defeated breath and licks his lips. Then as he lowers his face to mine, the bridge of his nose resting against mine, and as I close my soaked eyes, I hear his anguished words loud and clear within my bones.
"I'm a jerk, Tessa, I'm not a criminal."
Author's rant:
Oh god, someone pass me a tissue. THE WHOLE BOX!
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What do you think about the chapter? Happy? Relieved? Upset? I mean it was still pretty twisted.
Oh and this is just the beginning, guys. Let's see what all is in Hardin's coveted closet of secrets.
