I'm a coward.
I couldn't stand hearing her cry. Couldn't look at her pained expression my betrayal caused. Couldn't say the right words because they don't exist.
My father has reasons for keeping things from Tara, but I'm the one sleeping in her bed. Although she didn't tell me everything about her past, she trusted me enough to let me in and share some of it, while I didn't. Couldn't.
She cares about me. Even after the shitty treatment I gave her, she was kind enough to look past my flaws and try to find the good in me. She sees the good in everyone and doesn't deserve the shit she's going through because of me.
"Where's Tarita?" Cara says, eying me as I descend the last few steps of the sprawling marble staircase one would expect to find at a five-star hotel and not in someone's home.
Words form a ball in my throat, but with a Herculean effort, I push them out. "Upstairs. She needs you."
A loud groan falls off Cara's lips as she barrels toward the stairs. "And here I thought you were different." She pauses when she's level with me and tips her head back. "All men are the same," she says with conviction.
I don't know about all, but I'm not good enough for Tara, and my heart aches for everything we could've been if I hadn't messed things up.
My eyes sting. I swallow thickly, nodding. "Just take care of her."
***
Staying with Tara, if only to show how much I care about her, crossed my mind. But she'd want answers I don't have, and there's only one person who can end the toxic cycle of people hurting her with secrets and half-truths.
Dad.
It's late enough that he should be home, and I drive down the familiar road fringed by dense woods. Hard-to-process emotions still coil tightly in my stomach. I oscillate between hating myself for letting Tara down and worrying about her reaction to the truth.
Besides, what's the point of the police waiting if she already knows something? I clutch the wheel with one hand and pull at my hair with the other, eyes trained on the road ahead.
Flashes of red and blue against the ebony sky make me straighten. As my Mustang approaches the police cruiser parked in the emergency lane, apprehension lances through my gut.
Several other vehicles are parked a few feet away. An ambulance. A black van. My father's Ford.
I slow and leave my car in park. Nobody's in sight, but Dad can't be far. I open the driver's door and get out of the Mustang, glancing left and right.
Muffled voices come from the woods, and light dances among the trees. I trudge along the narrow footpath toward what looks like the yellowish glow of a flashlight.
As I draw nearer, I spot people gathered around something with their backs to me. Dad is there, and I step forward. A tall guy in running gear gestures to an officer taking notes and steps aside, unknowingly allowing me to glimpse what's in front of them.
YOU ARE READING
The Real You
Romance♡AN ENEMIES-TO-LOVERS ROMANCE♡ Attending the same college is the only thing Sebastian Hutches and Tara Van Doren have in common. To Sebastian, Tara is a rich, spoiled girl, obsessed with her looks and status. To Tara, Sebastian is a rude, arrogant...