Page 6 of Inked Persuasion

“Do you? I don’t know if I believe that.” She shook her head, her hands digging into the pink box. I sighed. “Here, give me that. I don’t want you to ruin perfectly good donuts.”

“I don’t know if you deserve these now.”

“You don’t really have a choice, do you? They were a gift.” I grabbed the box from her and then took a step inside to set them on the table. I didn’t invite her in, and she didn’t move forward as if she wanted to come inside. I didn’t know if I blamed her. My alcove was deep and shady enough that unless someone were at Annabelle’s house, they wouldn’t be able to overhear what we were saying. But if a neighbor had binoculars or something, they could probably see her standing there despite the shadows. I didn’t care what my neighbors thought about me, though. Not now.

“Jonah and I married because he loved me, and I loved him. Maybe not in the way of most adults, but we knew that we didn’t marry for the same kind of love your parents had—or even mine.”

“You were only using him.”

She blanched and shook her head. “Never. I promise you. Jonah was my best friend.”

“Really? I know that’s what you kept telling the press. They ate it up.”

“Because it’s the truth,” she spat. “Jonah had cystic fibrosis. You know that. Youknew, just like I did, that he wouldn’t make it past his eighteenth birthday. The doctors didn’t even think he would make it past his thirteenth.”

“You don’t have to remind me,” I shouted, then let out a breath and took a step inside. “Come in. I’m not in the mood to make someone call the cops.”

She glared at me and moved past the threshold, and I closed the door behind her. I didn’t lock it. Even in my current state, I wanted to make sure she knew she was safe from me physically. I wasn’t locking her in or anything. Yet I didn’t even know if she registered that action.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened with my brother. I know he was sick. I watched him slowly die for his entire life.”

“But helivedit, too. Don’t forget that. He smiled, laughed, learned. He brought so much to this world, and all he wanted was a wedding. You know he was a romantic. He dreamed of weddings and the perfect love and everything that he knew he’d never get to have. So I gave that to him.” She raised her chin. “Other people might not have understood, but I always thought you would. He was your brother. Didn’t you understand that he wanted what we had?”

“You weren’t his real wife,” I bit out.

“Of course, not,” she whispered. “But I was hiswife. Because he asked. And because my best friend was dying, and I loved him. I would have done anything to put a smile on his face in those last days. Anything,” she said, her voice breaking. “You know how much pain he was in. He just needed something, and I gave him what I could.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying not to look at her tears. I hated them. I didn’t think they were weapons right now, but I’d thought they were when we were younger. I’d thought she used them for the cameras. But as I looked at her here, I wondered if maybe everything I’d assumed before was wrong. Perhaps she wasn’t a person who needed the limelight. But I didn’t know.

I really hated those tears. They may look real now, but I didn’t know what to think. Still, I hated her.

“I hated you for so long,” I bit out. “Jonah was all about you. Everything that he did in the end was for you and about you. He pushed us away.”

Annabelle reached out, then let her hand fall. “I didn’t realize it at the time,” she whispered. “I didn’t realize that everything was so weird and different. I was only trying to help my best friend. I didn’t know I was hurting you or anyone else in the process. Jacob, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t think sorry is going to cut it. It never did. You paraded yourself out there in front of the news media as the virgin bride, the perfect, young, eighteen-year-old still in high school, marrying her high school sweetheart.”

“I hated the press. I hated everything. But your parents asked me to do it because it helped to raise money. You know that.”

I held back a flinch. “What?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“No. What are you talking about?”

“There was a fund to help with the last of the bills. With so many. And the more Jonah’s story was out, the more people cared. And it helped him and the others in the center. I did what I had to in order to follow his last wishes. But you were there, too. I’m sorry I took moments from you and him. I’m sorry I can’t give them back. Buthe’snot coming back. I can’t bring him back. I would do anything to make Jonah come back. He was my best friend,” she repeated. “I don’t know what to do. I know you hate me, and I can’t change that. But you’re my neighbor now, and you’ll just have to deal with the fact that I live here.”

“You need to go,” I whispered, trying to get my thoughts in order.

“Fine,” she spat. “You know what? It’s fine.” She stormed past me, slamming the door behind her. I looked down at my hands, wondering what the hell I was going to do.

She had married my brother, given him five days of pure happiness as a husband and a man with a future. Five days of marriage, and then my brother died. And I hadn’t been there because he’d said he needed time with his precious Annabelle.

I had lost time with my sibling. I’d lost so much. I hadn’t been there.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even hate her as much as I felt I should.

I could only hate myself.

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