Page 30 of Give Me Perfect Love

“Huh?” She looks confused.

“Where was your house?”

“Just a few miles from here. Past the county line.”

I get off the bed and pace the room.

“Bryce, what is going on? You’re scaring me.”

“You couldn’t have been older than Jace,” I say to myself, looking down at the floor. I could have saved her then. I could have gone into that house and taken her, and she wouldn’t have had to go through any of that.

She stands up. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

There’s no telling what was going on. She had to have seen so much shit. She was probably confused and scared. She was sad. I remember how sad she looked. My heart rips in two, knowing I could have done something.

I rake my hands over my head, linking my fingers and resting them there as my eyes begin to water with sorrow.

“Bryce, talk to me. What the hell are you thinking?”

I look down at her. “Your house. Your stepdad. I think that’s where we left from before we got into the car wreck and my dad died.”

Her eyes grow wide. “What?” She covers her mouth as everything starts to click in place. She looks to the floor, skimming over the carpet.

“Oh my God,” she says. “Your mom.”

“My mom what?” I ask.

“I remember her, Bryce.” Her eyes bounce back to mine. “I remember you.”

I shake my head slightly at all of this as I bring in a deep breath.

How could this be?

How, after all these years we found each other.

I walk over to her and grab her in my arms. “I should have taken you away from there. None of this would have happened to you.”

She wraps her arms around my back. “You were just a boy. Don’t put that on yourself.”

I kiss her hair and breathe in. She smells like hotel shampoo and home.

She’s my fucking home.

I hold her tighter, so grateful to have her in my life. She went through so much, and yet here she is comforting me.

“I would kill that man if he wasn’t already dead.” I pull away and put my finger under her chin so I can see her. “I would make him suffer, K.”

She swallows and nods slightly, searching my eyes with hers. “I know.”

And I believe her, but I don’t think she realizes just how much I would enjoy killing the bastard. Sometimes I think there’s a monster inside of me. I can feel him when I’m hitting the punching bag.

He wants me to beat the shit out of something.

He wants to fight and cause pain.

I’m angry because of what I had to see growing up. The people I had to live with and the situation they put me in. Having to raise my brother, the drugs, and the fighting. Then losing my dad in a car crash that my mother caused.

Kat is closed off emotionally, untrusting, and has a hard time talking about the things she’s been through. And it’s because of her mother leaving her and her stepdad’s abuse.

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