Page 57 of Reclaiming Adelaide

“What was that all about, Jake?”

I just shook my head. The words weren’t important enough.

“Talk to me. This isn’t like you.”

“This is me,” I snapped.

“No.” She shook her head. “This isn’t the brother I’ve known my whole life. Why are you acting like this?”

“Things have happened…” I plopped my hand down onto my bouncing knee and glanced back at the bathroom door. Why was she taking so long? “Things I don’t want to discuss with you right now.”

“It must be pretty serious for you to abuse her—“

“Abuse?” I scoffed. “I didn’t abuse her. Don’t let her get in your head.”

Becca bolted to an upright position as I rubbed the tension from my temple.

“You put your hands on her, shoved her onto this couch, and pulled her hair as you held her down.” Her hands writhed in her lap. “You abused her.”

I ground my teeth. I’d never harm Adelaide. She wasn’t hurt. I didn’t leave a mark or draw blood. She was fine.

Right?

“Enough, Becca.”

Just the allegation alone sent me spinning into a whirlwind of possibilities about myself that I never thought possible.

“I don’t like this, Jake. Why is she coming with us? Tell me the real reason.”

The real reason? I’d never given her a reason, to begin with.

Let’s start with the fact that Adelaide was being hunted by mercenaries or how I was afraid the moment I turned my back… These conflicting thoughts and feelings weighed me down. On the one hand, I couldn’t care less if they destroyed her—take her out back and put a bullet in her brain. I’d do it for them if I wasn’t so torn. But with the same breath, I’d vow to protect her by any means necessary. It didn’t make any sense.

“Adelaide isn’t who she says she is.”

The bathroom door opened, and she stepped out, wiping her mouth and the tears from her eyes as she took the seat closest to the bathroom.

A little piece of me drowned in her tears as they slipped down her freckled face.

What gives? It didn’t bother me a moment ago.

Why now?

“Go talk to her and say you’re sorry. There isn’t anything she could’ve done that warrants you putting your hands on her like that.”

Becca, you innocent fool.

I turned my head towards her while glaring out of the corner of my eyes. “Like I said, she isn’t who you think she is.”

Adelaide leaned over and placed her head between her knees as if the plane had taken a nosedive.

Her back expanded towards the ceiling as she inhaled shaking breaths.

My gaze dipped down to her thumb, caressing her tattoo.

If what she said was a lie, then why would she get the tattoo and then leave, knowing I’d never see it?

Was there some truth intertwined throughout all those lies? Or was she just in it for the long haul… like those method actors who ended up becoming the characters they played?

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