Chapter 96 Chapter 96

Chapter 96 Chapter 96
Caden

Now he’s living in his bachelor pad in the city, screwing girls half his age and casually calling my mom a whore.

I blink at him, a red tinge of rage clouding my vision, and it’s like I see him clearly for the first time.

He’s a fucking asshole.

And whether he became this way because Mom cheated on him or she cheated on him because he was this way, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a prick.

He never gave Mom a chance to explain herself, and he never tried to work things out. He just turned on her completely, every bit of love he’d ever had for her morphing into hatred.
And as I look at him, I have the sudden uncomfortable feeling that I’m looking at my future.

My dad is unbending, stubborn, and prideful—just like I am.

And this is where all of that got him.

I can’t excuse what my mom did, but for the first time, it occurs to me that maybe I’ve been wrong all these years. I always assumed that if Kimberley hadn’t told my dad about the illicit kiss, the whole thing would’ve blown over—that Mom and Dad would’ve been happy again.

But maybe that never would’ve happened. How could it, if they were never happy in the first place?

“You know what, Dad, I’ve gotta go,” I mutter, standing quickly. “I forgot I have a thing today. Maybe I’ll see you next Christmas. Or sometime.”

He looks vaguely annoyed, probably wondering why I drove all the way out to ask him random questions about his and Mom’s divorce before suddenly bailing. But I don’t care. I need to get the fuck out of here.

I thought Dad might be able to help me. I thought talking to him would make me feel better.
But the truth is, it’s only made me feel worse.
Because it’s given me a glimpse of the man I might become. 

Ben

KIMBERLEY: Okay. I’ll see you at noon.

My phone rests on the checkered tablecloth in front of me, and when I swipe the screen to exit my text messages, I glance at the time.
It’s 12:25.

I’ve been sitting at Trattoria for nearly half an hour, and the waitress has basically stopped bothering to come by. She probably got sick of my one-word answers and the tension radiating from me like a physical force.

I can’t help it though. All my muscles feel like they’ve turned to stone, and I can’t get them to relax.
Fuck. Kimberley’s not gonna show.

I deliberately picked a little, out of the way pizza joint and asked her to meet in the middle of the day so she’d feel safe. So she’d know this wasn’t something shady on my part.
But of course she doesn’t believe that. Why would she, after all the shit the three of us pulled on her?

12:26.

I should probably leave. This has already reached the point of being embarrassing, and now it’s edging into humiliating. The place is mostly empty, thank fuck, but I know my waitress thinks I’ve been stood up.
And she’s not wrong.

Goddammit. I just want to talk. Not something I ever thought I’d say, but there you fucking go.
I haven’t made as much progress as I was hoping in tracking down who ratted on Caden’s mom back in high school.

Jack didn’t know, but he’s put me in touch with a few people, and hopefully they’ll be able to steer me in the right direction. It’s slow going, and I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying this trip down memory lane at all, but I’ll keep digging until I find something.

But that’s not what I want to talk to Kimberley about today. I know it’s a violation of privacy and could probably get me fired, but after I talked to Jack, I accessed her school records in the registrar’s office. I saw her high school transcripts, and something about seeing it laid out so clearly in black and white like that made my stomach feel like it was full of lead.

She was a good student… until the three of us decided to break her. I could see, in plain numbers on her transcript, just what our torture had done to her. And she never really recovered, even after she transferred out of Amundsen High.

But at Evergreen Bay U? She was doing well. She was putting the effort in, and it was paying off.
Until Caden wrecked her again.

My gaze shifts back to my phone, and my hands curl into fists.
12:30.
Motherfucker.

My jaw clenches as I shove my chair back from the table, and just as I’m about to stand up, I catch movement out of the corner of my eye.
Kimberley is walking toward me, weaving her way through the other empty tables in the joint.
I come to a stand just as she reaches me, and she tilts her head to meet my gaze. She looks smaller and more fragile than I remember her being, but also harder somehow. Like there’s steel beneath the softness of her curves.

Her eyes are a little puffy, and she looks almost strung out, as if all of this has been wearing on her, grinding her down.

She’s nearly a foot shorter than me, but she doesn’t shrink back from me. She stands straight and tall, her face an expressionless mask.

“I didn’t think you’d come,” I admit, my voice low.

Now that she’s here, I wish I’d invited her someplace more private, although I know that would’ve been a bad idea for a whole lot of reasons.

“Yeah. I didn’t think I would either.”

Something passes through her eyes, a flash of emotion, but it’s gone too fast for me to figure out what it was.

I pull out the chair opposite the one I was sitting in, and she looks at me suspiciously, like she thinks I might yank it out from under her when she goes to sit down. She does sit though, still holding her back ramrod straight.

I sink into my own seat again, taking in the sight of her across from me. She’s so close I could reach out and touch her, and I hope the fucking waitress doesn’t get all gung-ho about taking our order now that Kimberley’s here. I just want a few minutes to talk to her first.

“What do you want, Ben?” Her voice is flat.

“You really meant it,l didn’t you?” I ask. “About Evergreen Bay U being your fresh start.”

She blinks at me, seeming surprised that’s what I asked her here to talk about. She shifts warily in her seat, then nods. “Yes. Of course I did.”

“It should be.”

Those words have been mulling around in my brain ever since I looked at her transcripts, and I know they’re fucking true.