Strings (1 of 2)

Chapter 64 - Confrontation

"Don't." I snap, tears coming to my eyes. "Don't call me that. You... can't. Don't." I stammer like an idiot.

Dean calls me that. Sometimes Jade. No one else.

Dean never would have done this to me... I can't help but think.

His mouth gapes open, shocked at my outburst, but he nods after a moment.

"The whole time... it was all fake." I whisper, more to myself than him. "Everything you said. Everything you did. Everything we did."

I blink up at him through the tears and he shakes his head quickly, his whole face fallen and pained. As pained as someone who just played this cruel joke on me can be, I guess.

"Never. Not that." He says and I close my eyes, shaking my head as if to shake out his lies. The lies that just keep piling up the more and more I remember every detail of our time together in my head.

"Small details I made up. Small omissions. I didn't make up anything between us. All of that was real. The whole time."

"Small omissions?!" I yell back and he jumps slightly. "You FUCKED me the entire summer as you lied and stole my parents' fucking money, and that is a small omission to you?"

I get up and start pacing, thoughts going in circles in my head. Every memory. Every moment. Every word he has ever said to me. They all replay at once in my mind, layering over each other, his voice filling every second of silence with so many different words and tones and lies that I can't even hear his real voice trying to get my attention in front of me right now.

I pull at my hair with free hand and then press my palm against my ear, trying to block out the voices drowning out my sanity. It doesn't work, though. His real voice triumphs over the rest as he stands and moves closer, making me step back instinctively.

"That didn't come out right. Let me explain it all please, Emily. Please. I need you to know." He begs. If I didn't know any better, I would think I see tears forming in his eyes.

But I do know better.

Today taught me that much.

"I hate you." I spit at him but I fully know it's actually the opposite. I hate myself for being unable to hate him, despite his disgusting lies and deceit.

I thought maybe he loved me too... that maybe our entire arrangement was more than either one of us said aloud it was... I wanted him to feel the same things I have been compressing.

But he doesn't. He never did. He never will.

It was all a lie.

"A lot of people are after our money, they always have been. I have been through this before with friends..." I place my palm to my forehead, trying to calm myself down by applying pressure, but that doesn't work either. "I never thought you were one of them. Fuck, I'm so goddamn stupid." I scoff and laugh humourlessly at how ridiculous it all seems now. Every feeling and every New York plan - wasted.

"I'm not! It wasn't about that for me. Gabby has most of the money. That was her plan - a way to make your parents pay." He shouts back and I fling my arms up.

"For what?! What the hell did we ever do to you?" I yell and his eyes blaze, flashing between anger and regret and sadness and guilt, all within a few seconds.