Protect My Heart

Chapter 27

Clover

The car tyres dragged to a halt on the craggy pavement.

Mason muttered profanities. "This is stupid. This is so stupid. We shouldn't be here."

"Will you stop complaining? You've been going at this the whole ride. Let's not forget that you invited yourself, not me."

He huffed, looking me dead in the eye. "Midge, there was no way in hell I was going to let you do it on your own. Listen, everyone we know left this town. My mom, Elisa's family, the rest of yours. For fuck's sake, Adam, Bella, Sebastian, and Zoe did. Even Nick! It isn't a coincidence that everyone left because this town is haunted and wicked and just bizarre."

"You have a point, but I'm not giving up. I need to know, Mase. And I didn't bring you with me so you could only complain. So, if you want to go home, then go ahead. I'm not forcing you to be here."

A smile graced his features. "I won't abandon you again. I'm the one here who is working towards forgiveness, remember? I need to be on your good side. Besides, I wouldn't ever let you step foot in this town alone."

Oh, well, he doesn't need to know that I already did. Twenty kilometres out of this town, but close enough.

"But are you sure about this? We'll find another way. We can drug him and force the answers out of him. We can hire a hitman?"

It would've been easier, yes, to walk away and never return. With the house in our direct line of sight, I was staring at my adolescence. I'd spent the best and worst days of my life there. In one of the rooms, Jackson laid a hand on me. In the kitchen, Logan and I professed our love to each other. In one of the rooms, Jackson fisted my hair and threw me across the room, so I fell hard and broke my rib. In the living room, Logan consoled me after Jackson had assaulted me yet again.

A house full of so many dreadful memories should've been burned down.

So yes, Mason and I could've gone back home and never looked back. But I also thought my newly formed brain needed this. Needed to console the memories to erase the hurt, to figure out who I really was.

Margaret had been right when she'd said I'd made my trauma into everything who I was. I lived in my trauma and refused to let go. So this was my chance, this was my chance to finally be free.

I was a fully grown adult with a fifteen-year-old's soul.

I had to let her go for once and for all.

"I have to. This house holds the answers. It holds everything."

"Midge, are you sure? You have to be really sure. I mean, you haven't been here since..."

He stopped mid-sentence, but I knew what he meant. I knew exactly when I'd been there the last time: the day Jackson had threatened my life again, the day he'd left our lives. The night that'd ended with our freedom.

The bastard hadn't shown his face since then, but I could always sense him lurking in the shadows. I avoided thinking about him, of course. Every time he'd pop into my head, I'd seek Logan's comfort. I'd want to yank my hair out one by one and plead to let my childhood out of me.

Jackson. Jackson. Jackson.

He was everywhere and the closer I stepped towards his old home, the further my courage slipped. He'd beaten me in that house. He'd forced himself on me in his bed. He'd shoved me against furnaces. He'd stabbed Logan in his own bedroom. He'd kidnapped me on the threshold.

So, I faced my friend with a clenched jaw, so shattered and yet hopeful for answers. "If your spouse walked out on you on the day of your child's birth, left everything he owned to you, and returned two years later, then what would you do? What would you do if he was so adamant on pushing you away that he's willing to go to extreme measures to ensure that? No. Better yet: if you've fallen out of love with your spouse and don't want a child yet, then why the fuck would you leave everything you have in their name? Why would you do that?"