Colton's Miracle ✔️

18. Falling For Him

Colton:

"I still think this is really unnecessary, you guys." Alice tries for the hundredth time to change our plan, but I'm not fucking having it. Lily is not staying here, not before we figure out who this bastard is. She's not safe, not until we know what this person wants from the girls, and I won't fucking have that. Hell, if she decides to stay here I'll camp by her goddamn door if it means I'll keep her safe.

I don't feel in control of her safety again, and it's driving me fucking insane. The first sixteen years of my damn life, I've had no control. I didn't have control over my health, my sanity, my safety. Hell, I didn't even have control whether I'll eat or fucking starve. The orphanage did, that bitch and her asshole of a husband who managed it did. And they abused that power to its maximum.

"If you want to stay here I'm staying with you." Dave declares, his voice thick with determination and I know exactly how he feels. Some sick bastar is messing with us. We don't know who he or she is, or what they fucking want. More importantly, we don't know what they're capable of. And we're not about to leave it to chance.

My eyes catch Lily's figure as she quietly packs her suitcase with a deep frown between her eyebrows. She's too fucking silent, it worries me. When we found the last note, she dismissed the whole ordeal. Yet this one unsettled her for a reason I can't quite understand. Surely, possibly having a stalker isn't something to not worry about, yet that's not the real reason behind her unusual behavior. I just know it's not.

"Lily." I grab her attention, and I can see Dave and Ali looking at her too. Her beautiful eyes are alert and wide with worry when she looks at me. "What's going on?"

Lily's frown deepens for a second and she takes a deep breath, the top in her hand falling on the suitcase. She swallows, moving her eyes between the three of us. "I think... I think whoever is sending these notes... is sending them to me. Not Ali. I think they're meant for me."

My heart drops to my stomach at that.

"Why do you think that, Anne?" Dave asks softly, patiently.

My eyes never leave her figure and she fiddles with her fingers nervously. "There are a lot of things that you don't know... about me. About my past. The life I used to have before I came here was... unusual."

She's choosing her words carefully, her eyes trailing after our every reaction, as if she's worried one of us would either snap at her or run for the hills. I almost scold her for ever thinking that, but then I remember that she hasn't known us for long. She doesn't know that when we let someone in, they're fucking in.

"What do you mean?" Alice asks gently, patiently waiting for her to tell us what has her so worried.

"I mean that if one of us is putting on a show, it's probably me." She confesses and I frown at that. "My life back at my hometown was one that I couldn't wait to run away from. The person I used to be back there is nothing like the person I am now. I don't mean to put on a show; it's just that I never had the chance to be who I truly am back there. But this note... I think someone here somehow knows more about me than they should."

My heart pounds in my chest at the different scenarios that her words carry. I know nothing to go on by. I can't possibly know what she means by all that. One thing I know for certain though is that whatever it is she's so fucking afraid of saying aloud won't change a goddamn thing. Lily is my miracle, and she always will be. And I'm not gonna let some fucker get in the way of me showing her how much I want her with me.

******

Lily:

They stare at me for a couple of seconds and I swallow the lump in my throat, afraid of their reaction. I never wanted to share the truth with them this quickly. I haven't known them long enough for them to somehow overlook what I have done, if that was even possible.