Chapter 82 UNEXPECTED DATE 2
Jaxon’s POV
Her gaze lingered on mine, yet I couldn’t read her.
I couldn’t tell if my words had taken her by surprise… or if she simply didn’t know what to say.
And the truth was, I didn’t even know why I had said it in the first place.
But one thing was certain.
I meant it.
I wasn’t sure I could make it through the night alone.
There were going to be too many uninvited guests… too many faces I didn’t want to see… too many things waiting to go wrong.
And I wasn’t confident I would be able to keep my cool.
But somehow… I felt that if she were there with me, it might be different.
Her presence had always had that effect on me.
It had always been enough to quiet the storm inside my head.
I thought maybe that feeling would have disappeared by now.
After all, we were no longer the children we used to be.
We had grown up.
And in many ways… we had become strangers.
But earlier today, when I pulled her into that hug…
It was still there.
That same warmth.
That same quiet comfort.
The kind of comfort I had only ever known in my mother’s arms.
And for a brief moment… it had felt like coming home.
But then another thought pushed its way into my mind.
Her.
Since when had I started dragging other people into my problems?
Since when had I begun asking someone else to carry even a fraction of the weight I had learned to bear alone?
The realization made something tighten painfully in my chest.
I shook my head slightly and forced a small, dismissive breath.
“Forget I said anything,” I muttered quietly.
“I’ll just go.”
Nancy’s Pov
“Wait!” I called after him as he began walking away.
But he didn’t stop.
If anything, he only increased his pace, as if he were trying to escape the moment entirely.
My heart skipped nervously as I hurried after him, finally stepping in front of him and blocking his path with my hand stretched wide.
“How can you just ask me something like that and not wait for my response?” I blurted out, my voice betraying the nervousness twisting inside me.
But the moment I looked up at him, my words faltered.
His gaze looked distant.
Cold.
Like he had already shut the door on whatever fragile moment had existed between us seconds ago.
“I wasn’t thinking straight when I said that,” he replied, his voice suddenly flat. “And I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea.”
My hands slowly fell to my sides as I stared at him.
He wasn’t even looking at me.
The distance in his eyes hurt more than I expected.
“Do you want me to go dressed like this?” I asked quietly, searching his face, hoping to pull his attention back to me.
This time his eyes finally lifted to meet mine.
“No,” he said almost immediately.
“I have a stylist in town.”
I nodded slowly, then pulled the gate open.
When I realized he still wasn’t moving, I turned back and looked at him.
“Let’s go then.”
“Right,” he said.
We both walked toward his car and climbed in.
The ride was painfully quiet.
The silence between us felt heavy, thick with all the things neither of us was saying.
When we finally reached the busy store, he turned slightly toward me.
“You can go in first,” he said. “I need to make a call.”
I simply nodded before stepping out of the car.
Inside the store, the stylist and her assistants immediately surrounded me.
For the next twenty to thirty minutes, they worked on me nonstop—adjusting, fixing, styling—just like the last time in Brentmere.
It felt like forever.
But when they finally stepped away…
I had to admit, the result was beautiful.
I stood in front of the mirror, taking in my reflection.
A long, straight, body-fitted wine-red sleeveless cotton gown hugged my figure perfectly, paired with my dark emerald-green heels and matching bag.
My hair was swept back neatly into a bun at the back of my head, giving it an almost bridal elegance.
I barely recognized myself.
The sudden sound of Jaxon clearing his throat behind me pulled me away from the mirror.
I turned around slowly.
He was standing just behind me.
His gaze lingered on me in a way that made my heart skip.
I waited for him to say something when our eyes finally met.
But he didn’t.
He just stared.
And somehow… his silence spoke louder than words.
“Is it that bad?” I asked lightly, breaking the quiet tension hanging between us.
“You look stunning,” he said softly, a small smile finally appearing on his face.
Warmth spread through my chest.
I smiled back before walking toward him, doing my best to hide how difficult it was to walk in the heels.
“Now let’s go,” I said. “We’re already late, and you’re the one hosting the event.”
Together, we walked back to the car.
And soon, we were on our way toward town.
But even as the car moved forward…
That strange tension between us lingered quietly in the air.
Silence fell between us again as Jaxon’s attention remained on the road, but I couldn’t help observing him. Even though he masked it well, I could tell something was bothering him.
I have noticed that whenever he becomes restless about something, his eyebrows twitch without him even realizing it.
Then again, his grip on the steering wheel tightened every now and then, like he was totally pissed about something.
I knew I was supposed to wait at my apartment and meet Troy, but I couldn’t help wanting to meet Jaxon’s new mother. I wanted to know what she was like.
“Can I ask you a question?” I said, finally breaking the silence between us.
His gaze met mine briefly before he simply nodded.
“That night when I found you soaked in the rain in that hospital gown… did you run away from the hospital? If yes, what were you running away from?”
I watched as his jaw tightened.
I couldn’t tell if he was angry, but I knew immediately that he didn’t want to have this conversation.
Instead of replying to me, he increased the speed of the car. It caught me off guard when the car jerked forward suddenly and we nearly crashed into another vehicle. But he stopped just in time as the traffic light turned red, leaving us on hold.
He immediately turned to face me.
“Why are you suddenly asking me these questions?” he asked, his voice distant and cold.
“Because I want to understand that little boy so I can understand the man he became,” I said, my voice almost a whisper as my gaze held his, even though the dim light inside the car barely illuminated our faces.
“I was just a twelve-year-old boy who got into an accident and saw my mother hanging from a chair with blood covering her face… but I couldn’t even save her.
When I woke up, I was told months had passed. I was told my mum survived the incident, but when I met her, she was perfectly okay—too okay for someone who had fallen off a cliff with me. And she was different from the mother I used to know.
It felt like I was the only one who returned.
I was called crazy. Even my father didn’t believe me, and they had me moved to a psychiatric hospital because that bitch suggested it.
That night, I ran away because I couldn’t take it anymore. The moment I saw the door to my room open, I made a run for it, needing to be free.
Needing to go back to that accident that was stuck in my head… and get my mum back.”
Each of his words sounded like gunshots in my ears, like knives stabbing into my heart.
And suddenly, I saw him again—not as the man beside me, but as that lost little boy who once begged me to take him back to his mum.
I wanted to hug him.
To tell him everything would be okay.
But before I could reach out and hold his hand, his next words threw me completely off balance.
“Ravyn Vale… he’s coming to this party, Nancy,” he said.
“And guess what? He just fucking cleared his name of every criminal record. I mean, they killed her. What about Emmy? Who’s going to fight for her?”
His voice broke, and I felt tears slide down my cheeks.
He wasn’t just a broken child.
He had been deeply traumatized.
And that trauma had grown with him… turning into the nightmare that still haunted him today.