Out of the Storm - COMPLETE

Chapter 20

Jules

"YOU SAID YOU lived here your whole life. Did you mean you've lived in Amberton your whole life?" I ask.

"Yep." He stares into my eyes, and I could get lost in them. "What about you?"

"I'm not any special nationality with a fancy accent. I've lived here my whole life. In Amberton."

He nods. "And your fiancé?"

Twisting the ring on my finger, I glance down at it. "Nope. He moved here in sixth grade."

"Has he always been like he is now? Even back then?"

I shrug. "We were kids, Theo. I don't know. Looking back, I guess I just always thought he was immature, that he'd grow up eventually."

"Why did you stay with him?"

Glancing back at him, he looks pained. I shake my head. "I don't know. Really, honestly, I don't know. I think I thought I loved him. There was also all that time. If I broke up with him, that meant all those years were wasted, didn't mean anything. I did try once, though."

"And why didn't you follow through?" He squeezes his hands together. I am pretty sure he's craving my touch the way I'm yearning for his. "What made you stay with him, Jules?"

"Do we have to talk about him?" I ask, thinking about that horrible time in my life.

"Yeah, we do. I need to know as much about him as possible if we're going to take him down. I'm trying to understand how his fucked up brain works. Why did you stay?"

"The business looks like we're partners, but he owns it all. He said it was my gift, but it's in his name. He writes my paycheck. And he made sure to let me know that if I ever tried to leave, he'd see to it that I never got a job again."

Theo hisses.

"Then, he apologized. Said he didn't mean it. He was just angry." A tear trickles down my cheek. "He was, of course, drunk. That's why I wanted out. I hate the way he gets when he's drinking." Closing my eyes, I swallow back the tears.

"How long ago was that?"

I shrug. "About a week before we got engaged. I didn't feel like I could say no. I know now that he wasn't just drunk, though. He's been messing around with drugs. He's gotten so much worse since he started with that." I swipe my nose. "When you asked if he was always like this, I guess I should have clarified. This Charlie is still the same Charlie from middle school, immature and irresponsible with a short fuse for a temper. But drugs and alcohol, they make all those qualities so much worse, Theo."

"I want to hug you so much I ache, Jules. I want to squeeze you, tell you it's going to be okay."

"I wish you could. I've never told anyone any of this."

"In that video where he wins the money, you looked happy."

"The way I am with him in public isn't real. It's all an act. A carefully calculated and practiced façade."

"I see." He runs his hand through his hair. "Do you live with him? Do you sleep in his bed?"

"This is so you can get to know him?" I arch a brow.

"Okay. Maybe not completely. But yes. I want to know where you're going when I drop you off." He pinches the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes. "It is fucking paining me to know I have to let you go tonight, especially when you clearly have no way of protecting yourself...knowing he's got people who are trying to do shit to you."

I'd forgotten about overhearing his conversation. That seems like ages ago. "I don't live with him."

Theo nearly chokes. "Is that so?"