Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel Bella Emy (best ebook reader for laptop .TXT) 📖

can reassure you that you’re not going to like it. You’re not going to like the answers you’re about to receive, so I hope you’re ready for them.”

I search his eyes once more. So there’s a secret. There’s a reason he never told me about why he left me after he took my virginity. I knew it. I fucking knew it. I never should have come out here with him in the first place. I should have continued holding my grudge against him. I knew he was no good.

Anger replaces the sorrow I was feeling just moments ago. A red rage blankets over me. I fucking knew my instincts were right. Dammit, I should have stuck by my intuition.

His eyes scan over me, taking in my reaction. I can tell from the way he’s looking at me now that he knows I’m pondering over his words.

I swallow thickly. I’m not ready. I know I’m not ready to hear his words, but I’ve been waiting for a reason for so long. Why did he leave? Why did he walk away from the love we used to share? No, I’m not ready. I know it’s now or never though. It’s time to finally hear the truth about why he left me back when we were in high school, or leave and go back home and continue wondering from time to time why in the hell he took off.

Why did he leave when we had something so good? Why did he end something that was amazing without so much as an explanation?

I take a step back and cross my arms across my chest and look at him dead in the eyes. “Tell me,” I demand. “Tell me why you left me when we were so in love, or so I thought. But then again, maybe I was the only one who was in love.”

He gasps silently. “You know that’s not true,” he whispers.

Do I? “Well then, if it’s not true, tell me why you broke my heart. Tell me why you shattered my dreams.”

He licks his lips, inhaling deeply. “Before you think of any more crazy reasons about why I left, just know this: I didn’t want to. The last thing I wanted to do was leave you, breaking your heart. Because believe it or not, it broke mine as well and ruined my life along with it.”

I scoff. Right.

“It’s true, Lexi. I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted to leave you and go away.”

“Then why, Kalen? Why did you go?” More tears stream down my face. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for and dreading all at the same time.

He takes a step back. “Do you remember that day I went to your house to meet your parents? The day your mother invited me over for brunch?”

I breathe in deeply. “Yes. How could I ever forget that? It went perfectly and turned out to be everything I hoped for. But after that day, you started pulling away. I noticed a change in your behavior, but I prayed it was all in my head. I hoped for it every day. But that was the beginning of the end. Why?”

Kalen leans back against the banister. “When your mother sent you into the kitchen to bag up some goodies for me to take back home to my family, she pulled me to the side and spoke to me. Or rather, she demanded things from me.”

I furrow my brows. “What? Kalen, what are you saying?”

He chuckles, but it’s obviously void of humor. As he goes through that day in his mind before he tells me what he’s about to say next, I can see this is not amusing to him at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. He looks annoyed and frustrated… and angry.

“What I’m saying, Lexi, is that your mother demanded I stay away from you. She made me promise her that I would leave you alone and let you live your life. That if I truly cared about you at all and wanted the best for you, I’d let you have it without a worthless piece of scum like me to bring you down… those last words were her exact ones.”

A rolling thunder sounds as ominous clouds take over the morning sky. It seems as though last night’s rainstorm is coming back. Perfect, because right now, warm and sunny is not how I’m feeling on the inside. Gloomy and cold is more like it.

I can’t believe what he’s telling me. My mother would never do something like that to me. She had no reason to say something like that to him. Why would she want to cause me pain? She knew how much I cared for Kalen. She knew what he meant to me, so of course, she would know how I’d feel if he’d leave me.

She wouldn’t do that. She had no reason to. This is not true.

But the look in his eyes is making me think there is more to this than I know. Why would Kalen lie to me? He never had before. Why now? But why is he making this up, which I know he has to be? My mother wouldn’t do what he’s saying she did.

“What?! Why would she say that? It’s not true!” I turn away from him.

“Lexi!” He comes up to me, grabbing me by the shoulders and spinning me around to face him.

My tears never cease. They continue streaming down my face.

“Lexi… I’m sorry to have to hurt you like this, but it is true. She told me I would never amount to anything, and I’d never be able to give you what you deserve, what you need. She was worried about you and your future. She said I would never be able to take care of you…”

“What?!”

He searches my eyes. “It’s true, Lex. I came from nothing. I didn’t have two dimes to rub together growing up, and your mother knew that. What I have now, I built from nothing. I