Learning to Live

Chapter 32

"The fire in the shelter ten years ago was my father's doing."

It took a moment for his words to sink in.

The fire in the shelter. My memory conjured up images of an orange night. The sounds of cats and dogs calling for help, then fading as smoke and fire claimed them. The shock. The heartache.

"What?" My voice sounded weak. I turned to look at him. His attention was on the windshield, his eyes hard and unforgiving.

"The only people who mattered to me back then were Tia Sofia and you," he said. "After Tia Sofia left, he realized he lost one of his cards. That left you. He and my grandfather..."

He shook his head, running his fingers roughly through his hair. "When meeting with you that weekend didn't get them the results they wanted, they switched strategies. They destroyed the shelter, and then they got Sam fired from his job."

"What? No. Sam resigned..."

"He didn't. Sam told me he was fired. My grandfather knew the chairman of the company Sam worked for. He got him fired in exchange for some favor, I guess. When I confronted my father, he admitted to everything and told me it was just the beginning if I didn't get my shit together. That it wouldn't be difficult to ruin your college life or even stage an accident in your car-" he closed his eyes tightly. "That's when I knew he wasn't going to give up. I was ready to give everything up and do what he wanted but-"

"You would've hated me."

He shook his head. "I would've given up the world for you, Sapphire. But I knew that as long as you were important to me, my father and grandfather would always use you and you'll be in danger. At first it'll be for college, but later it'll be something else. There will always be something else. I couldn't put you in harm's way. I couldn't do that to you."

My pulse throbbed in my ears. I couldn't believe his father had stooped that low. But that was the man who threatened Tia Sofia and then tried to bribe me. A man who beat up his son simply because he could. A selfish man who didn't care about his family.

My throat closed up. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Even as I asked the question, I knew. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing I could be used as a card to keep Hunter in line, so I would break up with him. I couldn't live with myself knowing the reason he did something he didn't want to was because of me. And no matter what he said now, he would have hated me for it.

In the end, it would be the same result. We'd been doomed to break up.

I looked away from him.

"You know why," he said. "It would've ended up the same. At least that way, you didn't have to feel that... crushing sense of helplessness." His voice turned horse. "And I was a coward. I couldn't tell you that the reason the shelter you loved so much was ruined was because of me. I couldn't tell you that the reason your brother lost his job was because of me."

"It wasn't because of you," I mumbled.

My heartbreak at seventeen had been dulled by the years and the losses I'd suffered afterwards. I'd known, somewhere deep inside, that Hunter wouldn't have just left without a good reason.

But did that even make a difference? At the end, he'd left and I was heartbroken.

But he was heartbroken, too. He'd had to make the decision to break up.

Had it been the right decision? Had there been no other option?

Maybe. But hindsight was twenty twenty. He'd been pushed into a corner. And we'd both faced the consequences.