Page 112 of Burn With Me

“I told you, fighting at this stage is pointless. You know a lot of people with cancer at this stage try to fight, and you know who it’s for? Their family. It isn’t for them. Do you think cancer patientslikebeing sick? Do you think theyenjoyfeeling so weak they can’t get out of bed? All the while, their families are out and about, talking about what they can do next to try and prolong their life. It’s a selfish thing to ask, Jackson. And all for what? A few extra months? Maybe an extra year?”

Whirling back around, I glare at him. “So, you give up? Just like that?”

“In my eyes, it isn’t giving up. It’s living the life I have left the wayIwant to.”

“That’s a bullshit lie, and you know it.” A realizationcomes to me suddenly. “This is why you granted Aunt Sadie the divorce.”

He doesn’t say anything, affirming my assumption. “You know she’d never have left you if she knew.”

“I know, which is exactly why I let her go. She was already miserable, but she would have stayed, and she would have asked me to fight. And I would have, shackling her to a sick man who would eventually get worse. She didn’t deserve that.” His eyes are glassy, his voice thick with despair.

We stand there, facing off, neither saying anything, both trying to fight back tears. I take a good look at him and see it written on his face. He’s tired. I think back to all the times I noticed it in the last few months but dismissed it.

Guilt racks my body, but his next sentence pulls the anger right back to the forefront of my emotions.

“Ginny gave me a list of counselors that we could speak to together, if you want. Therapy is actuallytherapeutic,believe it or not,” he tries to make a joke.

It’s like everything is sucked from the room all at once—the air, the sounds—as my world goes deathly quiet.

Concern, followed by understanding, plays out in his eyes. He knows he just made a mistake but doesn’t say anything as my blood begins to boil, and everything slowly bleeds back into existence.

“Ginnyknew?” My words are low and asked through clenched teeth.

She knew, and she didn’t tell me?Thisis the secret they’ve been keeping. Why they’re so comfortable in each other’s presence. The reason he was leaving Chillard that day I showed up.

“I asked her not to tell you, Jackson. Don’t be mad at her–”

“I can’t be here right now.” Betrayal and rage pour through me as I push past him to leave.

“Jackson!” he calls out behind me.

Throwing open the door, I pause to seeherleaning againstthe wall across from the door. She’s smiling, but as her eyes take me in, then bounce behind me to my uncle, it falls from her face.

“Is everything okay?” she asks, pushing off the wall, concern bleeding into her beautiful blue eyes.

Eyes I can’t even look at right now.

Ignoring her, I start down the hall to leave, but she grabs my arm to pull my attention back to her. “Jackson, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t speak to you right now, or I am going to say things I will regret later. Let me go, Ginny,” I tell her without turning around.

She does as I ask, a quiet gasp leaving her lips as I walk away. Carmela and Mick sit nearby as I weave through the tables toward the exit. They watch me go with matching expressions of sorrow on their faces, which stokes the fire in my chest.

In a matter of minutes, my world has crumbled around me. The only person who ever gave a shit about me is choosing to leave me, just like my father did.

And the only person I’ve ever loved kept it from me.

As soon as I’m in the car, I tell Robert to take me home and raise the partition that separates us. Once I’m truly alone, I let grief win. There’s no one here to see me cry, so I allow the little boy in me to resurface as I fall apart in the back seat.

Ginny

“What happened?” My voice is shaky as I ask Scott, watching Jackson disappear around the corner.

Scott comes to the doorway of Carmela’s office, leaning against the frame as he rubs his eyes. “I told them. Jackson didn’t take it well.”

My heart breaks for my boyfriend. To know that he just learned of Scott’s illness in a room with other people where he probably tried to keep it together when all he wanted to do was break down. Scott is the only family he has left since his aunt moved. He’s probably devastated.

“I may have also accidentally let slip that you knew…I’m sorry, Ginny. I was trying to bring up going to therapy, and it just came out.”

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