Last To Know

25

Five days later and I still hadn't forgiven Maddox.

He'd shown up plenty of times trying to talk to me. The first few times I refused to even see him.

Another time I opened the door and yelled at him before slamming it in his face—sure that after that explosion he'd leave me alone.

He didn't.

Why?

Because he said he loved me—and that tore me apart more than anything else he could have said, because I loved him too, but I was hurting.

"Please, Emma," he begged, his eyes pleading. "You have to believe me, I love you and I never meant to hurt you. This whole thing has spiraled out of control. Please, just listen to me."

"I don't want to listen," I growled.

He braced his hands against the front door, barring me from closing it. "I never intended to hurt you. I fell in love with you and it became impossible for me to tell you."

"Impossible?" I gasped. "Are you serious?"

He winced. "I didn't mean it like that. I just...I never wanted to hurt you."

"Stop saying that!" I screamed. "You did hurt me!"

He lowered his head and looked back up at me with pain filled eyes. "I'm so sorry, Em. I know you don't believe me, but I am. I'm so, so sorry I didn't tell you. I never meant to keep it a secret, but when I saw you didn't know who I was it just became so easy to pretend that other part of my life didn't exist."

Tears pooled in my eyes. I wanted him to shut up. I didn't want to hear this.

"Maddox," my voice cracked, "I need you to go away. Please. I can't think straight when you're around. Just give me a chance to breathe."

He took a step back and I closed the door.

"Please, Em," I heard him say through the door, "please forgive me."

I needed time and he couldn't seem to understand that.

I needed a chance to think things through and let go of this anger. I kept reminding myself that Maddox wasn't my dad. Maddox didn't leave me. He lied. And lying was bad, but he hadn't abandoned me, and I knew in my heart he hadn't played me like I originally believed.

But I wasn't ready to run into his arms and act like nothing had ever happened.

This was huge.

Since finding out the truth I'd spent more time watching TV and on my computer than I ever had.

And what I'd learned was Willow Creek was blowing up.

Their EP had dropped at the start of the summer, three of the songs soaring into the Billboard Top 100 and one even going to number one. The level of excitement for their full-length album was insane.

The bottom line was: the Willow Creek boys were famous.

Which meant if I stayed with Maddox, I was going to be thrust into the spotlight.

Hell, I already had. I mean they had a photo of me in US Weekly. And eOnline had posted an article about Maddox and me—and my name had been included. How they found that out was beyond me, but I was thanking my lucky stars that no one had shown up outside my house to try and snap a picture.