Unraveling (Second Chances) - By Micalea Smeltzer Page 0,58

eye, to broken bones and a concussion. Then…” he swallowed and took a deep breath. “Then it wasn’t just the beatings, anymore.”

Jared shuddered.

“I’ve tried so hard to forget my past, but no matter what I do, I can’t erase it. It’s still there, Katy. It won’t go away. It’s always in the back of my mind,” his voice was thick with emotion.

“Tell me,” I whispered, grasping his fingers in mine. I didn’t even flinch at the contact this time.

“One night,” Jared choked, “he came into my room. He was pissed and surprisingly, I don’t think he’d been drinking that night. He yanked me up, out of my bed…” Jared’s jaw clenched and he closed his eyes. “He stripped me of my clothes and he touched me. I couldn’t get away from him. My mom came in and saw. She would never protect herself from him and he always beat her unconscious before he’d start in on me, but tonight was different. She jumped at him, screaming, clawing and kicking. She looked like a wild animal let loose; there was a feral gleam in her eyes. I was crying and I felt so weak. I was a man and a man shouldn’t cry.

“She screamed at me to run. But I didn’t. He wrapped his hand around her throat and squeezed. When she was unconscious he dropped her to the ground like a piece of trash and left the room. I thought he was leaving. I put on clean pajamas and went to my mom’s side. She opened her eyes and told me she loved me and that she tried to take us away from him but she couldn’t. He found out that she was planning to leave and that’s why he came into my room. I guess he wanted to make sure I turned out as fucked up as him.” Jared chuckled humorlessly. “That’s when I heard the footsteps.

“I turned and I saw a look on my dad’s face I’ve never seen before. He held a gun in his hand and before I knew what was happening, he was shooting. It was so loud and I covered my ears, but I could still hear it. I felt the warmth of my mom’s blood cover my face and I sat there, helpless.

“Everything after that is a blur. I know a neighbor heard the shots and broke through a window. He tackled my father to the ground before he could shoot me or go after Karlie. Someone had already called the cops and the sirens were getting closer. I watched the blood seep from the holes in my mother, creep across the floor, and soak into my dinosaur pajamas. Her lifeless eyes stared back at me and in that moment I truly knew what hate feels like. I thought I hated my father before, but this was beyond anything I’d ever felt. I thought it was going to consume my eight-year-old body. This man had beaten me, he’d violated me, and now, he’d taken my mother from me. She didn’t deserve anything that she was dealt. She was a good person, Katy. But she’s dead, while he rots in prison. Why should he get to live, when she doesn’t?”

I was stunned.

What on earth was I supposed to say to him? Jared had been to hell and back; he’d experienced something that would completely shatter most people.

“Jared I- I don’t know what to say,” I told him, honestly.

“Are you going to run from me now, kitten? This will be the only time I won’t stop you,” his eyes were deadened and I realized he believed that I would leave.

I had news for him; there was no way I could ever walk away from him, because I was in love with him.

I sat up and he sighed, believing that I was leaving.

“Jared,” I said, leaning over him so that my hair tickled his shirt-clad chest. “I can’t leave you.”

“Why?” he asked, making no move to touch me.

I closed my eyes and decided to take that leap, and hoped Jared’s arms were waiting to catch me.

“Because… I love you.”

He sat up and hope filled his eyes.

I blundered on. “Against all odds, I love you. I didn’t think that I would ever fall in love, not again, but for the first time, because I never really loved Preston. He was… convenient and after what happened, I didn’t think I could find someone that would make me feel, because how can you feel without touching? But you proved