“Good, because no matter what happens, I still blame the two of you,” Vance says, emotionless.
“Son, what happened isn’t—”
“No, shut up. I don’t want to hear another lie come out of your mouth. In fact, I don’t want anything to do with you. Greg never would’ve found himself in a situation like this had you not made the choice to sleep with his wife. You and Laura are the cause of everyone’s pain, and I hope you both can live with that.”
Tears well in my mother’s eyes, but I can’t bother to feel sorry for her. Vance isn’t wrong. While everyone else has suffered, they’ve lived this great life, always having each other, always putting their needs first.
“We didn’t… I mean, we love—” Henry starts again, but Vance cuts him off once more.
“I told you what I wanted. Leave me alone, leave Ava alone, and you can go back to your precious little life. Fuck with either one of us, and I’ll tell Mom you lied. I’ll ruin you, bury you.”
Henry gives my mother a panicked look before walking toward the door. My mother, of course, follows behind him and I wonder if she ever really cared about me? If she wanted me here because she wanted her daughter here or because she felt obligated to give me a place to live? Not once did she stick up to Henry in my defense and even now, she’s like a weak dog.
“Whatever you want, son. It’s yours.”
“Good,” Vance snarls, and both my mother and Henry walk out, closing the door gently behind them. Once we’re alone, I feel his eyes on me. I turn to look at his face. His nostrils flare, and his emerald green eyes seem brighter.
“Come here…” he orders, pushing himself up toward the headboard.
“You can’t do that, you’re going to pull your stitches,” I scold, pushing up from the desk chair. I take a seat on the side of the bed, but obviously that’s not close enough because he grabs onto me and hauls me against his chest.
“Vance!” I squeal.
“Be mine. Be with me, Ava. I’ve fucked up. I know I did, but I promise you there is good in me. I will make this right, I’ll treat you right, and I will make you my number one priority. I want you to move out of my dad’s house and in with me. I want everyone to know that you’re my girlfriend and that I love you.”
It all sounds like a dream. I never thought Vance would care about me, let alone love me. But, I guess hate can’t grow when you cut off its only source of sunlight.
“I…I want that too, but we don’t want to move too fast.”
“We can go at whatever pace you want, but I won’t let you stay here under my father’s thumb. I’m done letting them rule our lives. They’ve been happy while the rest of us have suffered and I’m not letting it happen anymore.”
For years I’ve longed to be loved, I just never expected that love to be found in him.
“But what about money? I can’t pay for college on my own, let alone a place to live. I’ll have to get a job, which isn’t a problem but…” My voice trails off. I know I’m thinking too much into this, but it’s a lot of responsibility, and with a new relationship, we don’t stand a chance.
Vance grins, having obviously thought everything through. “Slow down, baby. I told my dad to give me my trust fund now. It was supposed to be mine after college, but he agreed that I could have it now. There’s enough money in there that we won’t have to worry about paying tuition or rent. We can forget about your mom, my father, and we can live a normal life, without lies and memories of the past.”
“Vance, I can’t let you…”
Lifting his hand, he presses a finger to my lips, silencing me. His eyes piercing mine, softening me with one single look.
I don’t want to argue with him, not after all we’ve been through. It should be me saying sorry, me offering to take care of him, I mean he got shot by my father.
“You can, and you will let me pay for it. I want to take care of you. Please, let me do this. Let me take that worry away from you. I owe it to you, to us.”
“Okay, but only if you let me pay you back.” I’ll probably never be able to repay him, but I’ll try.
“Oh, you can pay me back, alright.” He snickers, and I feel his hardened member pressing against my ass. “You could start now if you’re feeling generous.”
“Stop it, you’re healing. You could barely get up the stairs, you need to rest before doing any kind of activities.”