Page 174 of Wicked Little Secret
My eyes clench shut at the difficult memories. I hadbeen wrong about so many things and hadn’t known I was. My entire life had been a lie.
The woman who I believed to be my mother was really my aunt.
The man who I was told was my father was of no blood relation at all. He didn’t even really exist.
My real father was a vile man who tried to destroy my mother—and succeeded once he’d tarnished her reputation and then ran her through with a knife.
Then the man I’m in love with ranhimthrough with a knife.
The same man who was once in love with my mother many years ago…
I’ve tried to reconcile what it all means, and the only conclusion I’ve drawn is the same one I’d sensed from the beginning.
I can’t stay away from Theron.
Every moment he’s been away has felt like agonizing torture. It’s felt like a piece of myself has been missing.
He has my heart.
And I have his.
Five minutes go by and then another ten.
My latte gets cold. The people seated at the tables around me eventually leave and new customers trickle in. Caffeine sets in and makes me jittery, my knee bouncing in place.
He’s not coming.
I sigh, working through the devastating level of disappointment, and then I remind myself it’s justified. He lost two years of his life have been because of me. Because he chose to take the fall for things I had taken part in. He was forced to defend himself in a court of law, and though he was found not guilty, his reputation was irrevocably ruined.
I never once wrote him. I never visited.
Instead, I obsessed over him from afar. His sister, Theo, became my avatar. The only means I had for contact.
He probably assumed I didn’t share his feelings.
It must’ve looked as if I’d forgotten him and moved on.
If only he understood I kept my distance to protect him. I was staying away to avoid tarnishing his reputation any further in the eyes of the public. What would they think if they found out Theron Adler not only could be the Valentine Killer, but he had taken advantage of one of his female students?
Iknew the truth. We both did.
But no one else would get it.
In the public’s view, I would seem like a lost young woman. He would seem like a predatory older man, already accused of unthinkable crimes.
The best thing was to keep my distance. Protect his reputation the only way I could…
It doesn’t matter now.
What’s done is done. Theron has every right to feel betrayed. He has every right to never want to see me again.
My throat aches as I swallow against a tide of heartbreak and push my chair back to get up. I’m halfway out of the chair when the face in the crowd is finally the one I’ve been searching for.
Among the half a dozen other passersby coming and going on the sidewalk, Theron appears, looking just like I’ve memorized him in my mind.
He’s as tall and lean as ever, the jeans and Henley shirt he wears clinging to him in all the right ways, hinting at the muscle tone underneath.
His hair’s still ruffled and floppy, likehe’s recently run a hand through it, and the stubble that peppers his jawline only accentuates how angular it is.