Toxic Devotion

Chapter 23: confessions

Ashley's p.o.v

It took me a lot of time to explain to Val why I came here, and what I found out about Mia jones..

'Dylan said he killed her Val' I whispered.

'Its not true, ash. He always says it, because he blames himself for her death. He said if only he walked her home, she wouldn't have gotten raped, she wouldn't have committed suicide' Val answered.

'I just don't understand Val, why am I adopted..and Mia wasn't? I mean, why did she decided to keep one kid, and give up on the other' I asked him.

'I don't know' Val replied honestly.

'Im gonna go back to the hotel...Nicole is probably worried' I told Val.

'Yeah well, right now you're sad, but later, I am so killing the both of you' he shook his head.

I was about to leave, when max called my name. Val and I were still standing in the hallway.

'Can we just talk?' Max asked.

'Ill leave you two alone' Val said before leaving.

'Max, I'm so sorry Dylan beat you up because of me' I apologized.

'Its okay, really' he shrugged.

'Not its not you're hurt' I answered.

'He's right though to be mad at me. I knew he liked you, hell he's obsessed of you. All he did during the whole trip was talk about you, which pissed off Val..yet I decided to have feelings for you' he spoke.

'You can't decide to have feelings for someone max' I stated.

'Yeah well, if it was up to me I wouldn't' he sighed.

'Why did Dylan go crazy mode on you?' I asked.

'Its because he felt betrayed...after everything he's done to me' max said rubbing his shoulder.

'What did he do to you?' I frowned.

'Look, the reason why I joined the gang, is because after my dad died, my mom became an alcoholic whore..she brought another man to the house, and he would beat me up, and she wouldn't stop him. We lived in absolute poverty..after my dad was gone, I had nothing to live for..but then Dylan came, he convinced me to join the gang, and I moved in with him, he even used to buy me food when I'd be starving' he explained, and then I saw tears in his eyes.

'Max, I'm so sorry' I told him before hugging him, I saw Dylan getting out of the room, he saw me hugging max, he came towards us focusing his eyes on max. I thought we were going to have a repeat of what happened in the room, luckily, it didn't happen.

'Max, I just wanted to say that..um..fuck it' Dylan stuttered. 'Alright, I'm sorry' Dylan choked out the word 'sorry'.

'I'm sorry I lied to you' max replied.

'I just felt betrayed, I didn't want to hurt you' Dylan sighed.

'Its okay man, it's been a long time since I got that kind of beating anyway' max said before leaving, his words made my heart melt. Dylan's facial expression was neutral.

'Ashley can we talk?' Dylan asked.

'Not today Dylan, I'm tired. I wanna go to the hotel and see Nicole' I told him. He didn't say anything, I turned around and walked away.

***

I unlocked the door of my hotel room before going inside, I then closed the door behind me before walking towards the couch.

'Oh my god!' I gasped. 'The fuck you're doing here!!' I yelled.

'First off, lower your voice, second of all, don't even think about calling anyone, I just want to talk' April said, she was in my hotel room, sitting at the edge of the bed.

'How did you get in?' I asked her frowning.

'I told the receptionist my daughter lost the keys to her hotel room' she shrugged.

'I'm not your daughter' I corrected her, she just rolled her eyes. 'Just talk and threaten all you want, but make it quick I'm tired and want to rest' I informed her.

'I want you out of Dylan's life ashley. Because I don't want you getting hurt, I'm going to destroy all of them, I don't want you getting involved' April said.

'You know, I'm never leaving them, because at least I know, that they care about me, unlike you' I spat.

'If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't be warning you right now' she replied.

'Oh really? How come you put me up for adoption, yet decided to keep Mia under your roof huh?' I questioned.

'You really wanna know?' She asked.

'Yes' I answered.

'When Mia was one year old, her dad and I had a fight, because of the gang problems I've been having. So I went to a club, got hammered, and next thing I know I'm in some stranger's bed, one week later, I discover I was pregnant with you. I told Mia's dad, my partner, about it, and once he found out he went mental. He wanted me to abort you, but I couldn't. So I promised him I'd put you straight up for adoption, right after I give birth to you. But unfortunately, you landed in the wrong hands. The Carter's. I had to choose between you and him ashley. I'm sorry, but I chose him. Because I was in love with him, but then you know what they say, karma's a bitch. And so five years later, he died. Dylan's dad killed him, since he was involved with my gang. Right after that I killed Dylan's dad, and his brother. Well, my men did...' She told me the whole story.

Words couldn't describe how disgusted I felt.

'What about Mia jones?' I asked.

'She committed suicided. She was going out with dylan, and I didn't want that. I threatened him, I asked him to stay away from her but he didn't. And then one night I got home and saw this letter, Mia wrote it, she explained why she did what she did. Saying three men raped her on her way back home, I blame Dylan for that, if he did care about my daughter he wouldn't have let this happen. He didn't care about her, he was using her to get to me, to get every piece of information he could, to destroy me..Mia even wrote she was heading to throw her body in the ocean..I never saw her again' she sighed.

'So how do you know she suicided?' I retorted.

'Because of the letter ashley, I searched everywhere for her body, but I never found it' she said.

'Can you leave?' I asked her. I couldn't stand her anymore.

'You don't believe me?' She frowned.

'I don't know, I'm tired, I'm asking you kindly, leave' I repeated.

'Whatever, just, go back to Ohio, stay with you're aunt Stephanie, before something bad happens to you' she replied before she left.

I don't know what to do anymore.