The Trouble with Love

Spin-Off Intro

The spin-off/Jacen's story, Wildest Dreams, is now posted.
You can get to it by clicking the external link, if you're on a computer.
If you're on the app, just go to my profile, and find the story titled Wildest Dreams.
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     "I think that's everything," I announced, sealing the last cardboard box with a thick piece of packing tape.

     "You better hope all of this fits in our apartment," Ashton teased. He was standing in the middle of my room, amidst a mess of cardboard boxes and half-finished rolls of packing tape.

     Aside from the boxes, the room was pretty bare. There was still the furniture, of course, but I was taking everything else with me. "You have just as much, if not more."

   "I think you missed something," he told me, pulling out a photo frame from behind his back. "Did you want to take it with you?"

     I flipped it over to see a picture of Blake and in his arms, Avril. "Raine gave this to me when I first came to live with her and Kaden. I guess I should ask if she wants it back."

    "It's Blake and Avril, right?" Ashton asked hesitantly.

     "Yeah." I had told him that they had been my parents before the accident and Raine and Kaden took me in, when he saw a picture of them once, but not much more than that.

     "When did they..." he trailed off.

    "It'll be six years in three weeks," I answered quietly.

     He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "I'm sorry."

     "It's okay," I said, leaning into his embrace. "I just hope Kaden finishes their case soon."

    "Kaden's building a case for them?"

     I nodded. "He said he's working on it." I had asked him a while back, but he had said he was still building evidence. I hadn't really asked since then, because I trusted Kaden, and I was trying to stop butting into his work. Especially since I ended up deciding not to pursue law.

     Ashton hesitated. "Against who?"

     "Mr. Merrick," I replied, glancing back down at the picture in my hands.

     "Vanessa's dad did it?"

     I nodded, then glanced up when he didn't respond. "What's wrong?"

     He shook his head. "It's nothing."

     "No, just tell me." It had to be something important with how confused he looked and how reluctant he seemed about telling me.

    "It's probably nothing..." he protested.

     I didn't respond, instead just stared up at him pointedly.

    Ashton sighed. "Vanessa's dad got stranded on a remote island a couple years back-"

    That sounds familiar... "I think Nate mentioned this a while ago," I said, a sense of unease creeping in.