Page 34 of Second Goal

I sit down heavily on my bed. Crack. Crack. Crack. I swear I hear it, the fragile sense of happiness and hope I’d allowed myself to feel shattering. “How much?”

“Just a few thousand. Five max.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes. “I don’t have it right now.”

“I’ve seen where you live—”

“I gave Cruz everything I had the last time.”

A short silence. “Can’t you ask your brother? Cruz said he googled him, and he makes like ten million a year. Five thousand is nothing to him.”

My head starts pulsing right behind my temples. “I can’t keep asking him for money. I want to help you—”

“I’m trying to helpyou, Kiley. I don’t know what Cruz will do if I don’t get him the money.”

A shiver races through me, because I know exactly what he’ll do. First, he’ll take his anger out on her, and then he’ll come for me.

“Okay,” I mutter, not sure how I’m going to make it happen, but knowing I have no other option. “I’ll get the money. But this has to be the last time.”

She doesn’t say anything, and I know that her silence is a guarantee that this will never end, or it’ll end with me behind bars.

Maybe that’s where I should be.

“I thought I saw her,” I say softly.

“Who?”

“There was this girl at the park that looked so much like Lucy—”

“Don’t.”

“I can’t stop thinking about what happened. If I’d just—”

“I said don’t, Kiley. Just get the money.”

There’s yelling in the background and something crashes. Amy lets out a little gasp, one that sounds like it’s caused by pain. A sound I know too well.

“You have until Friday,” a man rasps through the receiver. The voice sounds so much like Ezra’s, and it makes me shiver, even though I know it belongs to Cruz.

“Wait,” I say, but the call ends. I flop back on my bed, my insides twisting, and my head spinning wondering how the hell I’m going to get the money. I know Brynne will put cash in my account if I ask her. I can tell her that I need new clothes, or I could use the money that she wants to give me for college. Pretend that I’m taking the classes and...

Lies.

Lies.

Lies.

They keep building and building until I’m nauseous from the deception.

No more.

I can’t keep doing this. Even if I get the money to Cruz, it’ll never stop. He’ll always demand more. The threat will always be there. And it still won’t change what I’ve done.

I need to come clean. Confess what I’ve done. Finally take responsibility for my sins.

You’ll lose everything, that voice in my head warns.

Maybe. But maybe Blake is right. Maybe I’m not just my mistakes. Maybe I can still be the woman he thinks I am. But if there’s any chance of a future with him, first, I need to face my past.

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