ADDICTED

2

LEAH

Looking around at the other people gathered here to grieve Jarrod's death, I couldn't help but wonder if any of them recognized me.

No one was staring or had really taken notice of us at all, but it still worried me.

I could only imagine how these people felt towards me.

Yes, I was a victim of Jarrod's obsession but they still lost a loved one. I expected them to disassociate from me.

Even though I also needed this closure, I couldn't help but feel that coming here was a mistake.

Isabelle grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

I slowly tore my eyes away from the freshly cut tombstone to meet her gaze.

Her dark brows lifted. "Remember what I told you," she said.

I sighed, nodding.

When the invitation to Jarrod's funeral service arrived in the mail, I was shocked.

The thick black cardstock with gold calligraphy looked like a wedding invitation.

Only, it wasn't for a wedding.

The mysterious mail was actually an invitation to a funeral in North Carolina.

Seeing his name printed on it in large black letters sent my heart racing. My mind spiraled down a litany of impossible thoughts.

Why? Why were they doing his funeral now, months after his death? Why would they want me there?

I had never been formally invited to a funeral before, much less one hosted in honor of my ex who was killed because of me.

I believes the natural assumption that his family hated me. Their hostility during the court case indicated as much.

Even if I wanted to, I never held it against them.

How could they possibly understand the complex feelings I felt for Jarrod?

Our relationship was complicated enough when he was alive. I tried to leave a man who refused to be forgotten.

No one would ever know how it felt.

To be loved by someone so much that it consumed them to the point of madness.

Isabelle reminded me that I didn't owe these people anything. I didn't have to come here.

Their son had wronged me, not the other way around.

Sure, that was true, but it didn't relinquish me from the guilt that I felt since I found out he died.

But it was more than just guilt.

I was heartbroken. That was the damndest part of all.

He was too young to die. All he did was love me too much and it got him killed.

Where was the justice in that?

I couldn't imagine a healthy way to be with him after all he'd done to me, but I never believed he deserved death.

Maybe someday he would've gotten over me and moved on. We would never know, because now he was gone.

Erased off the earth forever.

Nothing but a ghost in the wind to haunt me every time I got in my car at night or locked the front door of my house.

Isabelle believed coming to his service could only end in tragedy for me.