Sold Out Of Love | Rafe Cameron & JJ MayBank

𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐧

I couldn't believe he was sitting on the couch. His hat sat on his knee while he looked around the house he had purchased that ended up going to his son. Rafe came into the living room and held a drink of gin in his hand for his father. Rafe came to sit down beside me after handing the drink to his father. "Thank you son. How are you both?" He asked while taking a sip of the alcoholic beverage that his son had provided for him. I shook my head. "You're not going to come into here after being presumed dead, causing so much trauma for your own son and family, and showing up out of nowhere?" I spoke with an attitude forming into my voice out of anger. Rafe laid his hand on my thigh and shook his head at me. He whispered,"Stop Isla. You don't know what he's been through." I shook my head at him, making eye contact with him and then glancing at his father. "What has he been through? What about you? What about him leaving my friend to bleed out on my lap?" I asked. Ward shook his head and crossed his leg over his other. He interviewed his fingers within each other. Rafe shook his head at me. "Stop, he's said he has something to tell us. He might know where your friends are." He whispered to me once again. I had nodded my head at him and had been taken aback by him trying to deceive his father by making it seem like he cared about him enough.

Remembering the extreme pain that he had gone through from days on end erupted into my mind knowing that this could end poorly again. "Isla is pregnant so I guess you could say pretty amazing." Rafe turned to his father and leaned back against the couch. He sunk himself into the couch while I had pulled my legs up against my chest and turned my body towards Ward. The older man looked more aged than my father, meaning that he hadn't been taking care of himself. Ward's eyes brightened in excitement as he looked at me. "With my grandchild?" He asked. Rafe nodded his head and smiled thinking about the baby that was growing inside of me. "This is the best news that I have heard in a month." Ward spoke once again. He trailed his eyes down at my legs that pressed against my chest. "Taking the Cameron name?" He asked and sat the drink down on the table. Rafe nodded his head. "What a wonderful thing, son. You know how to take care of a baby, no?" He asked once again and looked at his son that had sunken into the soft couch. "Are you saying that because you want him to leave me?" I asked Ward in an anger knowing that Ward wanted his family back under his toxic spell he held them under. "I can't just ask my son if he knows how to take care of an innocent baby?" He questioned. I stared at him in confusion. "Can you cut to the chase, Ward?" I asked him in response and knew that he was trying to avoid talking about what he had done. He faked his death. A fake death that was traumatic to everyone around him.

The death that was faked so extreme that it put Rafe into another dimension of anger and sadness for the weeks that I had to deal with him out of love and comfort. Ward did nothing but damage the family but on top of that, put everyone else in harm's way because of his own misery. Ward had been taken aback by the comment I made. His blue eyes that matched my boyfriend's widened in shock that I was able to speak up for myself. "I had to hide for the sake of my family. Getting the items I took from John B was for his own good, I wanted Sarah to stop following him." He explained with a soft sigh forming in the back of his throat as he had looked at us. Rafe crossed his arms over his chest. "He was getting himself in trouble that I didn't want my daughter to be in. Did I harm people in the way of it? Yes, it was the worst mistake I could ever make but I was doing it to protect my daughter and the rest of your friends." He expressed once again in a tone that made me almost believe him until I had remembered the blood that sat in my lap from JJ; the one in my group that if something ever happened to him, I wouldn't be able to live. The memories of that night tormented me; seeing the Chief of Police get shot dead alongside my friend being shot in the shoulder, collapsing on the ground and bleeding out along my fingers and knees caused a trauma that I couldn't escape from.

Nights after that would pass by where I would have nightmares. Nightmares that would cause me to breathe heavily, struggling to grasp for air, unable to get up from sleep. Gasping for air once I woke up with an immense amount of tears falling down my face. Never did I want to tell my family, boyfriend, or friends because I knew that they would be concerned about me. The stress was so toxic to my body that escaping OuterBanks for the time that Rafe and I did became my happiness once again. Until I found out my friends were missing and a fake dead man showing up to the house had caused me to have flashbacks of that tragic night. Seeing JJ's bright blue eyes roll back into the back of his head. Blood covering me. Screaming like my life had depended on it, as if that even made the police come faster. Till this day I see blood stuck into the creases of my nails as I held his shoulder in my hands, begging JJ to stay awake and to not die on me. Many people would say "Get over it" but something that tragic was hard to ease. Hard to swallow when you really go through that feeling of uncertainty. All hope is lost.