Page 89 of Pretty Heartache

“Addy?”

I blink my swollen eyes, the tears drying on my hot cheeks.

“Yeah,” I croak, working around the emotion in my voice. “I’m okay. I just need a moment.” I look at Micah, and my heart breaks again for what he sacrificed. It aches thinking about everyday he spent in prison carrying the truth with him. The truth of his innocence.

My brain works around the facts and all the unknowns I have yet to learn.

“How?” I ask him. “How could you have let the police believe you did this?”

“It wasn’t difficult for them to believe.” He shrugs. “Like I said, I’m a Harding. I’d already built a reputation of petty crime, then add my father’s name and reputation in this city, and you have the perfect suspect. Archer has been my best friend for nearly two decades. He was there for me when I needed him most.” He runs his thumbs over my cheeks. Over the dried tears. “I didn’t hesitate in letting them believe it was me. I didn’t fight back or argue that the bag wasn’t mine. I let them believe it because I care for Archer. And I care for you. I didn’t want your family to have the same reputation as mine. I know what that life is like, and you and Archer don’t deserve it.”

I inhale a shaky breath, a round of fresh tears burning my eyes.

“But it cost you everything.” I look into his eyes. “Your life, your relationship, everything. Something like that doesn’t ever leave your record.” My heart hammers, the fractured pieces rattling against my ribs. The amount of love I feel from Micah is indescribable. Words I feel but can’t voice.

Every moment shared with him up until this moment living in the truth begins to click. Why he said it’s never mattered what he wanted. His trouble in seeing this house as anything other than a dying dream. I get it, and I wish I could fix the way he’s viewed the world, as if it’s wronged him but by his own hand. Almost as if he’s fallen on his own sword.

“Adeline.” His voice saying my name sounds so sweet, and I melt into it, closing my eyes, allowing myself to feel it.

“I need you to look at me when I tell you this,” he pleads.

I slowly open my eyes. My legs feel numb, almost as if they aren’t keeping me grounded. All I can focus on is Micah’s hands on my face, and his eyes staring into mine.

“You gave up everything,” I repeat, my voice cracking. “You gave up everything thinking you were protecting me.”

“Ten years ago, you said you didn’t need me to save you. Or anyone to save you. But I can’t help it, Adeline. I would save you over and over again if it meant you were safe and felt well-loved. My feelings for you were different back then. I was protecting you because you were my best friend’s little sister. You’re his family. You and Archer are my family. But now you’ve blossomed into something more, and now that I know how I feel about you, I don’t regret a single moment in jail. I only regret that if I had turned in your dad, it would have saved you years of heartache.”

I think back to that day at the pool, the words I’d told him ringing in my ears.

I don’t need you to save me. I don’t need anyone to save me.

My vision was red when I spouted off to him. I meant those words then, but now, looking into Micah’s eyes, I realize they’ve taken on a new meaning.

“I was a foolish girl back then with a foolish dream, and I only said that to you because I was embarrassed.” I need Micah to understand the evolution of my feelings for him. “You were the boy I dreamed of being with but knew I could never have. You were my brother’s best friend and twelve years older. I used to doodle my name with your last name in hearts, for God’s sake. And when you pulled me out of that pool, I wanted to die of embarrassment. What I really should have done was thanked you. You were the one thing I looked forward to during the summer. You were the light in my dark world.”

Micah’s loyalty runs deep—deeper than I could have ever imagined—because the fall he took to save Archer wasn’t an easyone to take, and the sacrifice he made that day for Archer was one that will forever leave a mark on his life.

“I spent two years in prison thinking about what I’d done, the choice I made,” he says. “There were days I regretted giving in as easily as I did. I cursed myself for not putting up a fight or standing my ground. But I don’t think I realized the weight of my decision until I heard those cell bars close. One day I was flying from London back home, the next I’m lying in my jail cell, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit. I’d lost my identity; a prisoner identification number stamped across the chest. I’d given up my life for your brother’s. For yours.” His thumbs gently run under my eyes, catching the tears I can’t seem to shut off. But I don’t want them to stop. They’re a reminder of how hard I’ve fallen for Micah.

He leans forward and brings his mouth close to mine. His fingers thread through my still-wet hair. My back is wet, too, and my shirt clings to my skin, but I don’t care.

“I gave up my life back then for you, Addy,” he adds. “And I’m so sorry it ended up doing the opposite of what I wanted for you. If I had known...” He shakes his head.

“Don’t apologize.” I grip his shirt, fisting the fabric, hoping I don’t wake up. The reality of my brother’s crimes weigh on me. I haven’t been able to wrap my head around the damage he’s caused. If I do, I’m afraid I’ll fall apart.

For now, I’ll cling onto Micah.

“You can’t blame yourself for what you didn’t know, just like Archer can’t. I don’t hold it against him, and I don’t hold it against you. You care about Archer, and that’s why you did what you did. You have a massive, protective heart, Micah Harding. Don’t ever apologize for it.” I press my forehead to his and look down at my hands. His mouth ghosts mine, and my heart races. Heat radiates down the length of my body, and every breath ofhis that passes my lips injects life deep in my bones, down to the marrow.

His hands are still wrapped around my face when he pulls me to look at him, somehow keeping his mouth impossibly close.

“I love you, Addy.”

He whispers the words I used to dream of hearing, and I feel all four feather across my skin before he steals my mouth into a kiss, and I sob into it. I melt into him and, fuck, every kiss is a solvent to my open wounds.

“I love you, too,” I say back, meaning every single word.

It tooka ton of convincing for Micah to finally agree to go to Connecticut with Lennon. He didn’t want to leave me, especially after the situation with Archer. But I know how important this visit to the pharmaceutical factory was to his brother, and I didn’t want him missing out on it because he’s worried about me.

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