First

Chapter 58

Sunlight was streaming through the blinds when I opened my eyes and flooding the bed in light. Birds were chirping happily away in the trees. I tried to sit up but soon realized that it was impossible. Jace and I were still tangled from where we had fallen asleep together the night before. Jace was curled around me like a vine, his face buried in my neck and his arm wrapped around my waist, securing me to his body. I was going nowhere.

I sighed and slowly removed myself from Jace's protective embrace, not wanting to wake him if I didn't have to. Even without the lights on, I could see the heavy bags hanging under his eyes; he must have tried to stay awake as long as possible. When I was finally free from him, I stood up and stretched, noticing my entire body ached from everything it had gone through last night.

Oddly enough, I found that there was no gap between dreaming and waking; I remembered every detail of what had happened last night as soon as I opened my eyes even though I wished I could forget it all. I smiled sadly at Jace before pressing a light kiss to his shoulder. What are we going to do, baby?

I suddenly couldn't stand to be in this room any longer—I needed to get out. Last night was pressing down on me, suffocating me in this small room.

Quickly throwing on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt I slipped silently out of the room. I immediately headed for the bathroom. I needed to see how bad my injuries were and how much I actually needed to cover up. The last thing Jace needed to see when he woke up was a physical reminder of what he had done. I was also worried about my parents and Levi asking questions and putting any more blame on Jace than he would no doubt be heaping on himself.

Upon entering the bathroom I closed my eyes, afraid of what I'd see reflected in that mirror. I steeled myself and took a deep breath.

"Shit," I cursed; I was a mess. My cheek was black and blue, giving me my first black eye. Not exactly something to be proud of, I thought.

What really gave me pause was my throat. There were two distinct bruises on either side of my neck coming to meet in the middle. In the shape of hands... hands that I loved and trusted. Just the thought of that made me lean over the toilet and throw up. I stood up and rinsed my mouth before gently prodding the bruises, wincing with just the slightest touch. They hurt like hell.

There was no covering this up I realized; it was pretty bad. No matter how long I spent trying to hide the evidence, it would still be staring everyone in the face.

Yet I still pulled out my make-up bag and smoothed some cover up over my cheeks and neck. I wanted it to look natural but there was no way that was going to happen with the amount of make-up I would have to use. So I smoothed the least amount as possible; I just wanted the injuries to look less severe.

When I was done I looked in the mirror. "It'll have to do," I said to my reflection, putting everything away and heading for the kitchen. Coffee, I need coffee.

Luckily no one else was awake just yet so I had the cabin all to myself. I needed time to process everything; I needed to decide how I was going to go talking about this with Jace. Something I wasn't looking forward to; I knew I'd put it off as long as possible.

I pushed start on the coffee and waited for it to finish brewing. In the mean time, I opened up the balcony door and stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air.

The water was so calm, only a few brave souls out in boats fishing; pelicans on the water; birds singing in the trees... It all seemed so calm and quiet contrary to the storm that was raging inside my head and heart.

I distantly heard the coffee beep and headed in to make a cup. I rubbed my eyes as I approached the coffee, wincing as I hit a sensitive spot on my cheek. Pulling a cup down from the cupboard, I proceeded to fill it almost half full of milk. I couldn't help but remember all the times Jace used to tease me that I didn't really drink coffee. According to him I only drank coffee flavoured milk.

The memory made me smile despite everything going on around us. No matter how lost Jace thought he was, he was still the same old Jace, he was still in there somewhere.

I had just finished making my "coffee" when I heard the bathroom door close. I looked around the corner and saw our bedroom door was still closed; it must have been my parents.

"You're up early, Kadence," my mom observed, walking into the kitchen. My back was still to her so she hadn't seen my bruises yet. And I intended to keep it that way if possible. Because once she saw them she was going to freak.

"I couldn't sleep," I replied. "Coffee's made." I gestured to the coffee pot and tried to slide my way around her as her back was turned, talking to my dad.

Unfortunately she turned at the same time I tried to slip past and she got a full look at my face.

"Kadence! Oh my god, what happened? Are you okay?" she cried, grabbing my arm to stop me from moving away. She took the coffee cup out of my hand and set it on the nearby table.

I tried to shake her off. The last thing I needed right now was the Spanish Inquisition. "I'm fine."

"No, you're obviously not. Look at your face. Dear god, what happened?"

My dad approached at my mom's raised voice and gasped too. Great, this is just getting worse, I thought. At that moment, Levi walked out of his room too.

"What's all the noise...." he started to say but he stopped the second he saw my face. "Kadence?" He practically ran over to me. His eyes were creased in anger. This just kept getting worse.

My mom grabbed my face in her hands and turned my head to inspect my face. Her eyes widened when they landed on my neck. I could see her mouth open and close but I knew that she didn't know what to say to me. She was trying to reconcile what she knew in her head with what her eyes were telling her.

"What happened?" she whispered once again. I was thankful she had quieted her voice; I didn't want Jace waking up and walking in on this drama.

"I'm fine." I physically removed her hands and stepped away from her, picking up my coffee on the way around.

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch," Levi growled, storming to Jace's room but I grabbed his arm to stop him.

"You will leave him be," I ordered, glaring at him. "Don't you dare touch him."

Now my mom jumped in once again. "Tell me what happened, Kadence. Don't walk away from me."

"It doesn't matter," I replied. I winced inwardly; my voice sounded dead even to my own ears. "Don't worry about it."

"How can you even say that to me?" Mom asked, pursuing me.

I appreciated the fact that my dad hung back; he knew that when back into a corner with something I didn't want to talk about I was bound to explode.

And explode I did.

I spun on my mother. "I can say that because you don't need to know. It. Isn't. Your. Problem!"

Thump! I jerked at the noise.

"Oh my god." I focused on the voice thatcame from behind my mom and my face fell at who it came from. Jace. The thump had been Jace droppingthe "ice packs" from last night on the floor in shock.