The Trouble With Goodbye

Chapter Thirty

Rain pelts my windshield as I drive away from my parents' house.

Tears of anger and frustration stream down my face and my breath comes in hiccups and choked sobs. I pull off the road about a mile away and let the sorrow spill out of me. I've had several breakdowns since that night, but this is the worst. All my walls are tumbling down. Everything I believed about my own life and about myself has been shattered.

I have wasted years feeling responsible for my mother's happiness.

I can blame her all I want, but it's my fault, too. I've allowed her to make choices for me. She may not ask me what I want, but when have I ever once spoken up? The only thing I ever did on my own was say goodbye to Fairhope so I could make a new life for myself. I was so proud of myself back then. The look on my mother's face when I told her I'd broken things off with Preston and was taking that scholarship was priceless. It wasn't that I wanted to hurt her, but rather that I wanted to be my own person for once. I wanted to see what life was like without her voice in my ear.

But Burke Redfield took all of that away from me. He stole everything from me.

And instead of standing up for me, my parents helped him cover it up.

The truth of it hits me in the chest and I collapse against the steering wheel. I've held this in too long. It's too much to carry by myself. If I don't talk about this, if I don't tell someone, I'm going to fall apart.

Knox is right. I haven't allowed myself to open up, even though he was brave enough to open up to me. I have kept these walls up because my parents asked me to. They told me it would be the best thing for me.

But they were wrong.

I lift my head and take a few ragged breaths, then turn the car around and head to Rob's bar, praying it's not too late.