The Long Journey {COMPLETED}

Chapter 23: Darkest Secrets

"Ann, Ann, is that true?" Jeremy asked uncertainly.

"You heard everything didn't you?" I asked him, fighting back my tears.

"Ann, why didn't you tell me. Or my dad. Why did you let it go like it was no big deal? You can't just bottle up your emotions. It could have driven you over the edge, if it hasn't already." He replied softly as he inched closer to me.

"I couldn't tell you, do you know how disgusting it is that I was pregnant as an 11 year old, with my father's kid. Cause that's so normal."

"Ann, none of this was your fault, but how did no one question it? I mean where, how was no one concerned by a 11 year old girl getting an abortion?"

"It was a shady place, I think my dad payed them a lot to keep quiet. You have to remember that he hurt me in a way that looked like self-harm so people thought his daughter was messed up and not him." I explained before looking at my arms and scowling at the scars covering them.

Jeremy took of his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders so that I could not look at my scars, "Ann, stop it. You aren't the bad one, you never did anything wrong, except keep quiet, but you were so afraid that he would kill you."

"I'm sorry, I haven't told you the whole truth. I am a gross creature, some of theses scars are from my hand. I was so tired of life, I wanted it to be over. I wanted to be responsible for my death, not him. He did most of it, and he always left something sharp near my bed so I could, ya know, whenever." I explained before stopping myself from going into a full blown panic attack.

"Ann, look at me, I love you. Nothing you have done in your past will change that. Life sucks sometimes, and I've been there before. I am not mad at you or judging you, it's a miracle that my mom never got pregnant all the times she raped me. And it sucks that you got dealt the shitty hand and had to deal with that at such a young age."

"I killed a human being!" I screamed.

"It would have died either way, your poor excuse of a father would have killed the child so people didn't know what he did to you."

"I can't do this. I thought all of my ghosts had been buried, but now everything is coming back to the surface." I cried out before crumpling into Jeremy, bawling my eyes out.

"Beautiful, you can do this. I'm here for you. Kate's here for you. Don't forget your mom, Lucy, my dad, and Nate. We're all here to help you. I can't lose you. I don't know what I would do without you." Jeremy replied before kissing my forehead. I sniffled out what was supposed to be, "Not have so much drama." But probably just sounded like weird mumbling.

"I wish I had this courage earlier. I could have prevented all of this," I sighed once I regained my composure.

"Stop blaming yourself," he responded, frowning at me.

"But it's all my fault."

"No, it's not, it's that poor excuse for a human being's fault," Jeremy hissed, glaring at my father's grave.

"Can we just go?" I pleaded, suddenly feeling tired and sick. I just wanted to sleep, something I'm way behind on.

"Of course," he replied, placing his hand on my back and using the other to pull me up.

"I love you."

"I love you too. All of you, and I hope you never forget that."

                The end.
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As y'all can probably see, this book is over. It ended how I felt like it should, all of her secrets out and him loving her no matter what. I'm in a different place now than I was when I started. I love you all and hope to see you in books to come.