Page 36 of Truths

“Jolie-”

“It's a lie by omission. Yeah, I would've needed time to deal, but I love you. This, though? This right here is what makes me feel like maybe I do need to run for the hills because this is exactly how Justin reacted every time he was caught in a lie. Hewasn't capable of loving me the way I need to be loved, and it seems like you aren't either. I can't trust someone who thinks hiding something that may cause me pain is the best option rather than tell me the truth.”

Panic grips at his throat. “What are you saying?”

“I'm saying I don't think I can do this, Bodie. Not if you're going to lie and think so little of me.”

He reaches for her arm as she walks by, but she pulls it out of his grasp. “Baby, please, don't go.”

“I'm done, Bodie. I can't... this is too much. Much too much. If you'd told me when you got the letter, it would have been different. But these similarities between him and you are so close I can't tell the difference anymore. And I refuse to let someone consume me like he did if they're not going to be honest with me.”

The door shuts before Bodie realizes she'd opened it, and by the time he runs out to his motorcycle, she's gone. How the hell had she disappeared like damned Houdini? Taking off, he knows he has to find her.

Bodie has struck out at every location he's looked for Jolie. It's like she vanished into thin air, and he starts to panic. Without a second thought, he goes to Lex and Colt's house, finding them drinking on the back porch with the kids asleep.

“Hey,” Bodie says, hoping the panic doesn't show through in his tone. “You haven't heard from Jolie, have you?”

Colt shakes his head. “No, why?”

“What'd you do?” Lex asks, her legs resting on Colt's as the couple swings on the porch swing.

“Why do you assume I did something?”

“Because of the look on your face. If I had a dollar for every time I saw that look on a club member's face, always tied to a woman, mind you, I would be rich. Powerball rich.”

Laughing, Colt's eyebrows lift. “Is she right? Did you do something to piss off Jolie?”

“I fucked up,” he says, leaning on the railing. “But it's kind of your fault, you know.”

“Mine?” Colt asks. Bodie nods, and he narrows his eyes. “What the fuck did I do?”

“I didn't tell Jolie about the heart.”

Pulling her legs off her husband, Lex leans forward and stares hard at Bodie. “What about the heart? Your heart? Is there something wrong with it?”

“I'm fine. I just... I got a letter from the hospital passing along a letter from the donor's family.”

“And?”

“Turns out, I got Jolie's dead fiancé’s heart.”

She just blinks at him. “For real?”

“Yeah. And I came to ask you what I should do, but you were in bed with a migraine. I talked to Colt, and he agreed with my thinking that I shouldn't tell her. But then she found the letter tonight, and she left me.”

Whipping to look at her husband, she glares while he looks defensive. “You told him not to tell her?”

“I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to keep the letter!”

“Oh, we are going to have a conversation on all of the things you haven't told me now, buddy,” she says and turns back to Bodie. “Why the fuck would you keep this from her?”

“Oh, I don't know, maybe because everything with her ex has her running off to try and get herself killed? He's a ghost I can't outrun. I never met this motherfucker, and he's haunting me. But now she thinks that the only reason I'm into her is because Ihave this jackass's heart and that I'm going to stray with all the pretty blondes like he did.”

She shakes her head. “This other guy never cared about her feelings, and you just proved you don't either. I get you don't want to upset her, and you sure as hell want to get out of his shadow, but lying by omission is going to bite you in the ass pretty much every time. You told her that your feelings and fears matter more than hers. You're supposed to be partners in a relationship, not a dictator.”

“It is not the same thing.”

“Well, okay, let's think about this. Do you believe Justin didn't lie to Jolie about his cheating with all those blondes and having four phones simply because he never told her? Because we know she had no idea, so she wouldn't have asked him. He never denied it because it never came up. So... is he not a liar?”

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