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"Your mom"

Of course My thumb started to stretch for the end button, ready to push it and put to death his voice inup," he pleaded Like he could read my mind, like he knehat I was about to do

I hesitated I wasn’t sure why, but I stopped I’d never heard his voice sound like that There was a thread of desperation to it He’d always been cocky and teasing, but he had never sounded quite so hu with his voice in ainst the wall, staring blindly into the ebb and flow of students

Thu moreto reveal that he was a different person That what had happened between us was just a hed into the phone "We want you to co, Em"

By "we" I assumed he ood thing about Don was his lack of opinion when it ca the silence

"Why?"

"We’re family Don’t you think it’s ti up to what you did?" I cut in Because that would go a long way If he just admitted it to me, I could maybe move on If he admitted his mistake to Moht it was oing with Don

He sighed again "Will that change anything, Emerson? I want us to move on and not rehash old history"

A pause fell between us as I processed this Just the fact that he was even calling ed

But I was different, too I wasn’t as trusting

"I just don’t think I can go" Show up and pretend like ere the perfect fa him to turn nasty onright then and spottedon an Arctic expedition The usual for her She was cold when it hit sixty degrees She claietically and headed in ht I had to try Maybe you’ll feel differently in the future"

I flexed o" Suzanne was al I wanted was for her to hear any part of my conversation with Justin

"Sure Take care, Em"

The line went dead I pulled back my cell and stared at it for a moment, not sure how I felt about the conversation I’dnow It was easier than accepting hih I’d turned him into this villain from the shadowy past, a part of me always knew the real villain was someone much closer to me

Mom’s betrayal wounded me the most She was the one I couldn’t expel fro No one My mom

She would always be my mother And the hurt she’d inflicted went deep It was like a wound that could never fully heal Theand tear it back open